
CbssJXM 



Book „ '~Ug 



PRESENTED BY 




Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr. 



"The: Century 

IN PHOSPHATES AND 
FERTILIZERS 



A Sketch of the South Carolina 



Phosphate Industry 



BY 



PHILIP E. CHAZAL E. M. 







The following sketch of the Phosphate and Fertilizer 
Industry of South Carolina was prepared for the Centennial 
Edition of the News and Courier, issued April 20, 1904, 
and to this fact are due its form and some of the matter 
included, of a general rather than a local character. 

It contains s/)rrCe necessary corrections, and a few 
additions which. 4*>is hoped, will add to its interest and 
value. 

Gift 
Author 

18 0-V 



THE CEMTJRY 



IN" 



Phosphates and Fertilizers 



A SKETCH OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA PHOSPHATE 

INDUSTRY. 



The phosphate region of South Carolina lies along the coast, 
and practically parallel to the shore line, for a distance of about 
seventy miles, extending from the Wando River, on the north, 
to Broad River, on the south, and at a distance of from ten to 
thirty miles from the ocean. 

North of this region occasional specimens have been reported 
in this State, notably in the neighborhood of Georgetown, but no 
deposit has ever been developed. The beds discovered still 
further north, in North Carolina, are of low grade and no com- 
mercial importance. 

South of Broad River, with the exception of a few isolated 
specimens found in some of the Georgia coastal rivers, a similar 
condition of affairs prevails until the State of Florida is reached. 
Even here the deposits located on the eastern coast, unlike the 
valuable beds of the western and central portions of the State, 
have proven of no commercial value. 

The phosphate beds are, of course, not continuous within 
this region, unless, indeed, they are connected at depths so far 
not reached in prospecting. The level character of the beds, 
however, and their modes of occurrence make this continuity 
extremely improbable and practically non-existent. In any 
event, it is a matter of no practical importance under existing 
conditions, and of interest only in connection with the consid- 
eration of the mode of formation of the deposits. 

No State examination has ever been made of the phosphate 
region. In 1870 Professor N. S. Shaler was sent by the United 
States Coast Survey to make explorations to outline the limits 
of the deposits, presumably in the rivers and was so engaged 
for about two years. The work, however, was, then suspended, 



on account of legal difficulties about publishing its results in 
the reports of the Coast Survey, and no such publication was 
made. 

It was not until Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr., of Charles- 
ton caused to be prepared, under his direction, a map of the lower 
portion of the State setting forth the results of his extended 
personal explorations and investigations, together with informa- 
tion gathered by him from various sources, that any attempt 
was made to outline the limits of the phosphatic area. The map 
so prepared was confined to the coastal region of the State, 
showing its main topographical features, and having outlined in 
red the areas within which phosphatic deposits existed at a depth 
of six feet or less, this depth being considered at that time as 
the extreme limit of profitable exploitation. 

In 1881 this map was revised by Professor Shepard in connec- 
tion with an article by him on the phosphate industry of the 
State, which was published in the annual report for that year of 
the Commissioner of Agriculture of the State. 

This report, for which there was a great demand, is out of 
print and the map is no longer procurable, very unfortunately, 
as it remains practically the only one ever issued, the smaller, 
uncolored maps given in several national publications being in 
reality copies thereof, and, except in one instance, uncredited. 

SUB-DIVISIONS OF PHOSPHATE REGION. 

The phosphate deposits, as has been said, do not lie in con- 
tinous beds through the whole phosphate region, but occur at 
intervals within this territory. 

Beginning from their Northern limit, however, the principal 
beds may be divided into general groups, which may be desig- 
nated as follows : 

Wando River beds. 

Cooper River beds. 

Northeastern Railroad and Mount Holly beds. 

Ashley River beds. 

Stono River beds. 

Edisto and Ashepoo beds. 

Coosaw River beds. 

Beaufort River beds. 

WANDO RIVER BEDS. 

In the headwaters of this river there was a considerable de- 
posit of rock of fair quality, much of which was hand-mined by 



the Marine ana River Company with oyster tongs and rakes. 
Intermixed with the rock occurred large numbers of fossil bones, 
from which it was, at times, very difficult to distinguish the 
former, on account of its remarkably fine-grained structure. Large 
quantities of menillite, false opal, were also found in this river. 
The transition to this from the rock was so gradual, and the ex- 
ternal resemblance between them so close, that a considerable 
amount of this worthless material was mined and lightered to 
Charleston. 

The land beds of this vicinity never proved of value, the at- 
tempts to mine them having been generally unsatisfactory. 

COOPER RIVER BEDS. 

The land deposits along this river have not proven remunera- 
tive. Though some of the rock is of good quality, it has never 
been found in sufficient quantity to justify exploitation. 

NORTHEASTERN RAILROAD AND MOUNT HOLLY 

BEDS. 

Some bodies of rock of high quality have been mined in this 
locality. In spite of the fact that a portion of the rock was in 
the form of sheets, requiring more or less blasting, and that it 
also contained a larger proportion of fine rock than is usual in 
most Carolina deposits, the mining on some of the tracts was 
very highly profitable. 

Most, if not all, of the best deposits have been exhausted. 
There still remains, it is true, a considerable phosphatic area, 
but the small size of some of the deposits and the poor or varia- 
ble character of the material contained in the others have made 
and make their profitable working practically impossible under 
past and present conditions, or any that are likely to obtain for 
many years. 

In this neighborhood the best rock is of a rich brown color. 
The poorer grades are generally lighter. Some of the small 
rock, or fines, resembles very closely the darker Florida land 
pebbles, but its quality is very much poorer. At one point, 
near Ten-Mile Hill, there is found a very light colored rock 
which is so soft and friable that it suffers great loss when handled 
by the ordinary methods. 

ASHLEY RIVER BEDS- 

The land beds of this group have up to this time furnished by 
far the greater part of the output of land rock. This deposit lies 
on both sides of the Ashley River. East of the river it began at 



a point about a mile below Bee's Ferry (C. and S. R. R. bridge), 
and extended to a point just above the present Ashley Works, 
a distance of some ten miles. 

The upper portion of the deposit has not proven of much 
value, on account of insufficient quantity or too great depth 
below the surface, and comparatively little rock has been taken 
therefrom. 

The remainder of the deposit, however, has been one of the 
main sources of supply, a very large amount of high grade rock 
having been mined therefrom, generally at very moderate depths, 
the rock at some points lying practically at the surface. 

So far as is known the rock on this side of the river, below 
Bee's Ferry, may be regarded as exhausted, Above this point, 
although the bulk of the deposit has been mined, there is still 
a considerable amount remaining. 

On the west bank of the river and reaching from it over to- 
wards Stono River, Rantowle's Creek and the Bear Swamp road, 
and at points beyond this road, there is a large and very valua- 
ble body of rock land of good quality and moderate depth. 

Although this locality has been the scene of almost continuous 
mining from the commencement of the industry and very large 
quantities of rock have been removed, the area of its rock beds 
was so great that there has not been the same proportion of re- 
moval as on the opposite bank of the river. 

With the exception of a comparatively small amount now 
being mined in the Ashepoo-Edisto neighborhood, the Ashley 
River beds are at present the sole source of supply of land rock. 

The rock from these beds varies very much in hardness and 
color. Its phosphatic content is generally high. At points, 
however, the percentages of oxide of iron and alumina are above 
the average. On the other hand, in the marsh rock, along 
Stono River, the amount of these ingredients is generally lower, 
as is to be expected from its resemblance to river rock. 

Stono River was the seat of the main operations of the old 
Marine and River Mining Company, the first of the river com- 
panies chartered by the State. The operations of this company 
were large and long continued and the bulk of the deposits lying 
at the bottom of the stream, sometimes covered with mud and 
sand, was mined and shipped. 

Doubtless from the more or less irregular character of sub- 
marine operations, isolated spots were left untouched. More- 
over, the washers used by the Marine and River Company were 
not equipped to handle rock embedded in tenacious clay. One 



such bed, left practically untouched, is now being mined by the 
Stono Mining Company and, it is said, with good results. 

In the lower portion of the river, near the bend, there is said 
to be a considerable bed of sheet rock, containing much carbonate 
of lime, and being so hard as to necessitate blasting, which was 
the seat of operations of the reorganized Marine and River 
Company. 

Stono River rock was generally hard and black or very dark. 
It was sometimes coated with a highly polished enamel, which 
gave it an extremely attractive appearance. 

As was the case with most of the river rock, it was admirably 
suited for the manufacture of superphosphate : in spite of the 
fact that its average grade was lower than the average of the 
land and most other river rocks. 

Between Rantowle's Creek and the Edisto River, a distance 
of about twenty miles, there is a considerable stretch of land in 
which, although rock deposits exist at various points, investiga. 
tions have failed to develop beds of any consequence until the 
Edisto River is reached, a state of affairs for which it is difficult 
to offer any explanation. 

On the north bank of the Edisto, some little distance above 
tne tracks of the Charleston and Savannah Railway, a consider- 
able amount of rock has been taken out and a certain area is still 
left, some of it said to be very valuable, though no mining has 
been done there for some years past. 

Higher up the river, on the same side, some heavy and, it is 
stated, rather extensive deposits occur, but they are of such 
poor quality as to be valueless, except under conditions of de- 
ficiency of supply not likely to obtain for many years, if ever. 

EDISTO RIVER ROCK. 

Some comparatively unimportant deposits are found in the 
bed of this river. For many years the great distance of water 
transportation would have prevented their utilization, had their 
quantity been sufficient. Even since the establishment of a 
local factory, no attempt has been made to utilize them, doubt- 
less on account of the greater attractiveness and cheapness of 
the neighboring land deposits. 

EDISTO-ASHEPOO BEDS. 

On crossing the Edisto River a different state of affairs is met 
with. Between this river and the Ashepoo there is a large area 
in which occur numerous deposits of rock valuable on account 



of its unusually fine quality, running as high at times as 64 per 
cent, of bone phosphate oi lime in the washed, though unburnt 
condition, and averaging over 62 per cent, of this ingredient. 

The very general thinness of the overburden is a conspicuous 
and valuable characteristic of these deposits. 

They lack the uniformity of the Ashley River beds, varying 
very much in thickness, sometimes in very short distances, and 
with a greater tendency to blank spots. The general high 
quality of the rock however, the very small amount of excava- 
tion necessary, as well as the fact that a large proportion of the 
territory remains untouched, except for prospecting purposes, 
make it one of the most valuable localities now left in the State. 
After the exhaustion of the more accessible lands now being 
excavated, its present high value must be greatly enhanced. 

TERRITORY SOUTH OF THE ASHEPOO. 

South of the Ashepoo River, no land deposits, at least none of 
consequence, have been found, except on the islands bordering 
on the Coosaw River and its tributaries. 

On South Williman's and Chisolm's islands, mining was car- 
ried on at greater or less intervals for many years. 

On South Williman's Island, mining operations were never 
resumed after the cyclone of 1893. How much rock is left on 
the island is not known. 

On Chisolm's Island there were deposits of land and marsh 
rock. The land mining, so far as can be learned, did not prove 
profitable, the quality not being of the highest and the over- 
burden in some parts heavy. Attention was soon turned to the 
more uniform, shallow and high grade marsh rock of this de- 
posit. A comparatively small portion was banked in and mined. 

Chisolm's Island, in time of storm, lies in a very exposed po- 
sition, the Coosaw River, which bounds it along its whole 
length, being in point of fact an arm of the sea rather than a 
river, and being noted for the roughness of its waters even 
under ordinary conditions. 

The construction and maintenance of banks is thus made 
troublesome and very expensive, the problem being further 
complicated by the fact that the best of the deposits lies imme- 
diately on the river edge of the marsh, appearing to be virtually 
a continuation of the neighboring river deposit. It would seem 
that the only profitable method of working would be by dredge 
from the river, and after the purchase of the property by the 



Coosaw Company, in the last half of the nineties, this course 
was followed, to what extent is not known. 

Chisolm's Island contained, also, several more or less bold 
creeks, containing rock, which were the subjects of prolonged 
litigation between the owners and the State, the verdict having 
been in favor of the latter. 

THE COOSAW RIVER BEDS. 

The Coosaw deposits have held, in regard to the river rock, 
the position occupied by the Ashley River beds in the exploita- 
tion of land rock. Being in reality, as has been said, a wide 
arm of sea, its deep bed was a receptable for the drift of a large 
area and its bottom was practically rock covered. 

The rock is found in great beds of nodules and boulders, and 
is black, hard, and of fine quality when free from marl. Since 
the exhaustion of the main beds, the usual difficulties of dredg- 
ing have been increased manifold by the necessity for dealing 
with the more or less mixed material which is present in large 
quantities. 

Most of the smaller lateral streams have been worked out, 
and the only mining being carried on any where in this neigh- 
borhood is in Coosaw river proper. 

BEAUFORT RIVER BEDS. 

This river contained several good beds of rock of somewhat 
inferior grade, so far as analysis in concerned, but making, with 
the formula in use at the time, a super-phosphate equal in 
grade to those obtained by the treatment of the usual standard 
rocks. There were also one or more beds of better grade, but 
they were very deep and difficult to mine. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ROCK. 

Carolina rock is essentially nodular, the nodules varying, it 
is true, from fines the size ot a pea to boulders of two thousand 
pounds, with an average weight, however, of only a few pounds. 
It occurs sometimes in flat cakes, more or less easily breakable 
into their component nodules, and, more rarely, in sheet-like 
strata, in which the nodules, if the mass ever existed as such, 
have been so cemented together in the process of phosphatiza- 
tion, that they can no longer be distinguished, and which offer 
an unbroken , hard, and frequently polished and resistant sur- 
face, yielding only to blasting. The nodules are sometimes 
kidney-shaped , oval, or almost rounded, more generally irregu- 



larly shaped, and, at times, somewhat angular this variation in 
shape depending, doubtless, on the amount of attrition they 
received when drifted together by the water currents, by which 
they were collected into beds. 

They are sometimes almost solid, but more generally full of 
cavities and perforations, probably due to slight variations in 
the chemical composition of the original masses, and to the ac- 
tion of marine boring animals. 

The surface is sometimes very highly polished, as if covered 
with a lustrous enamel. Generally, however, it is dull and 
rough, the granular structure of the mass being clearly visible. 
The internal structure of the nodules is generally granular and 
identical with that of the Eocene maris. Very rarely, some- 
what laminated masses are found. When fractured, the masses 
sometimes glisten with small silicious particles. The structure 
is entirely amorphous, no evidences of crystallization being dis 
cernible. 

The porosity of the rock is great, especially where the pol- 
ished enamelled surface is wanting. After washing, the rock 
may contain 15 per cent, of moisture, though on air-drying this 
generally falls below 10 per cent. 

The color is extremely varied. The river rock is generally 
dark-colored, black or grayish black. The land rock is of lighter 
hues, varying from light gray or yellowish gray through red- 
dish shades (due generally to an increased amount of oxide of 
iron), to light brown, and a rich dark chocolate brown. The 
marsh rock is generally dark, resembling the river rock more 
closely than the land rock. Some varieties of the marsh rock, 
indeed, appear to be identical with that of the neighboring river 
deposits. 

When calcined or properly kiln-dried, the rock yields easily 
to crushing and grinding, and, especially in the absence of the 
small water-worn quartz pebbles occurring to a greater or less 
extent in most of the deposits, may be reduced without diffi- 
culty to an extremely fine state of division. Indeed, this pro- 
cess may be carried so far that most of the product will float in 
the air. 

So great is the ease, comparatively speaking, with which this 
can be done, that it was at one time thought feasible to sup- 
plant thereby the generally accepted method of chemical sub- 
division with sulphuric acid, and considerable efforts were de- 
voted to this end before the advocates of the theory became 
satisfied that it was neither practical nor economical. 



When ground, the color of the resultant powder varies from 
a light yellowish gray for land rock, to a darker, though still 
light gray when derived from river rock. In all cases the color 
of the powder is lighter than that of the unground nodules. 

The specific gravity of Carolina rock varies from 2 to 2^, 
averaging according to a large number of determinations made 
by Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr., about 2.4. The density of 
the river rock is generally greater than that of the land varieties. 

The river rock is also generally harder than land rock, though 
this is not invariably the case, some varieties of the latter, nota- 
bly the sheet rock mentioned above, being very hard and re- 
sistant, at least at the surface. 

This hardness varies between 3.5 and 4, though one very soft 
variety, identified by Professor Charles U. Shepard, Sr., as 
epiglaubite, had a hardness of only 2. 

The structure of the nodules is very seldom uniform. It is 
generally densest and hardest at the surface, the interior grow- 
ing softer and more granular towards the centre, the color also 
varying. The lumps also contain, though very rarely, internal 
cavities (not perforations) containing sand or clay. 

THICKNESS OF STRATA. 

The rock lies in strata of greater or less thickness, varying 
from two or three inches to thirty or thirty-six inches, the latter, 
however, being very unusual. The average thickness of the 
workable beds may be estimated at from 8 to 9 inches, deposits 
of 12 to 16 inches being considered unusually good. 

The thickness of the stratum, however, is by no means neces- 
sarily an indication of the yield per acre, and therefore is not 
the only factor to be considered. With varying conditions of 
density, solidity and greater or less freedom from mixture with 
clay or sand, it is evident that different deposits with the same 
thickness of stratum may yield very different returns. 

Ignorance or forgetfulness of this important, though simple 
and apparently self-evident fact, has been the cause of frequent 
error and loss. 

YIELD PER ACRE. 

The yield of the land deposits varies from three hundred to 
twelve and fifteen hundred tons per acre, with an average of 
between seven hundred and eight hundred tons. 



10 

ODOR OF THE ROCK. 

Pieces of freshly fractured Carolina rock, when rubbed to- 
gether, emit a peculiar odor bearing a slight resemblance to burn- 
ing horn. The odor generally increases with the density of 
the rock and the content of organic matter. It is probably due 
to the vaporization of some oily constituent of the latter ingre- 
dient by the heat of friction. 

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE ROCK. 

As would be expected from what has been said as to the great 
differences in the physical characteristics of the rock, and its 
entirely amorphous character, its chemical composition varies 
greatly. 

The bulk of the mass is made up of phosphoric and carbonic 
acids, in combination with lime, and of sand or insoluble sili- 
cious matter, and the grade and consequent value of the rock is 
determined by the fluctuations in the amounts of these ingre- 
dients. 

The rest of the mass is made up of sulphuric acid, iron pyrites, 
(about I per cent.), fluorine, chlorine, iodine, magnesia, oxides 
of iron and manganese, alumina, potash, soda, organic matter 
and water, with occasional faint traces of other ingredients. 

On account of its variability and lack of uniformity of com- 
position, it is impossible to give any average analysis, which will 
serve as an exemplar of the whole. 

A table taken from a lecture delivered by Professor Charles U. 
Shepard, Jr., in 1879, on "South Carolina Phosphates," will 
serve to give an idea of the range of the various more important 
constituents. This table, which Professor Shepard stated was the 
result of many hundred analyses of clean, dry samples of rock, 
is as follows : 

(1) Phosphoric acid 25 to 28 p. c. 

(2) Carbonic acid 2^ to 5 p. c. 

Sulphuric acid }4 to 2 p. c. 

Lime 35 to 42 p. c. 

Magnesia traces to 2 p. c. 

Alumina traces to 2 p. c. 

Sesquioxide of iron 1 to 4 p. c. 

Fluorine 1 to 2 p. c. 

Sand and silica 4 to 12 p. c. 

Organic matter and combined water 2 to 6 p. c. 

Moisture ^ to 4 p. c. 



11 

(i) Equivalent to bone phosphate of lime, 55 to 61 per cent. 

(2) Equivalent to carbonate of lime, 5 to 11 per cent. 

The organic matter is nitrogenous, containing occasionally 
as high as a quarter per cent, nitrogen. 

Developments by mining, or extensive prospecting carried on 
since the date of preparation of this table, would seem to necessi- 
tate some changes therein, 

The higher limit for bone phosphate of lime is somewhat low, 
there being in the Edisto-Ashepoo region deposits yielding 64 
per cent, of this ingredient. 

Some quite high grade material, too, has shown as much as 
13 per cent, of sand, and the higher limit for carbonate of lime 
is also somewhat low in the light of the experience of recent 
years. 

Comparatively few complete analyses of Carolina rock are at 
present accessible, and it may therefore be of interest to present 
a few of these, as well as some partial analyses, showing the 
grades of the material occuring at different localities. 

ANALYSIS OF LAND ROCK FROM BULOW MINES. 

(Made by Dr. W. D. Warner, Assistant to Professor Charles U. 

Shepard Jr.) 

P. C. 

Moisture 2.43 

Organic matter and water of combination 5.68 

(1) Phosphoric acid 27.23 

Sulphuric acid 1 .45 

Carbonic acid 3.05 

Lime 39. 10 

Magnesia traces 

Oxide of Iron 1.38 

Alumina 0.40 

Silicious (insoluble) matter 13*03 

Fluorine, chlorine and other ingredients, undetermined. . . . 5.25 



100.00 
(1) Equivalent to 59.44 per cent, bone phosphate of lime. 
The following analysis of, unfortunately, a low grade rock i 

was made by Professor R. Fresenius, the celebrated German 

chemist, and is of very great interest. 

No record is at hand of the variety of rock represented by the 

analysis, but from the results it would appear to have been a 

sample of river rock. 



12 

P. C. 

Lime < 39-40 

Magnesia 0.49 

Soda . 0.69 

Potash 0.07 

Alumina , 0.62 

Sesquioxide of iron : 0.56 

Iron 1.37 

Sulphur 1.57 

Sulphuric acid 0.53 

Phosphoric acid 24.64 

Carbonic acid. . 4-54 

Chlorine 0.02 

Fluorine 3.24 

Silica and sand 16.38 

Moisture expelled at ioo° C 1.83 

Moisture expelled at red heat 4.66 

Organic matter 0.75 

Total 101.36 

Correction for oxygen ...... . . 1.36 

Corrected total 100.00 

Professor Fresenius combined these ingredients as follows: 

P. C. 

Bone phosphate of lime - - 53. 790 

Fluoride of calcium 6.050 

Chloride of calcium v 0-035 

Sulphate of lime 0.900 

Carbonate of lime 9.090 

Carbonate of magnesia 1.030 

Soda 0.690 

Potash 0.070 

Alumina 0.620 

Oxide of iron o. 560 

Silica and sand 16.380 

Pyrites 2.940 

Water at ioo° C 1-830 

Water at red heat 4.660 

Organic matter and loss °-755 



100.000 



13 



Professor Fresenius considered the soda, potash, alumina and 
oxide of iron as combined with silicic or humic acid. 

The low amount of organic matter shown in this analysis is 
very abnormal in Carolina rock, a similar result never having 
come under the observation of the writer. Exactly what is 
meant by the term "water expelled at red heat" is also not 
clear. The water of combination or crystallization of rock is 
given off at a temperature somewhat above the boiling point, 
and very far below red heat. 

So low a percentage of organic matter could have been ob- 
tained only in a sample of rock that had been highly calcined, 
in which case all of the water of crystallization, as well as a 
considerable part of the carbonic acid, would have been ex- 
pelled. It seems almost certain that a clerical error was made 
in reporting the analysis, and that the results should be "organic 
matter expelled at red heat, 4.66 per cent," and "moisture, etc., 
0.755 per cent." 

The following table of analyses, made by Professor Shepard in 
the early period of development of the industry, is of great value 
and interest as showing the results attained at that time. 

In the table as presented here, several errors that have crept 
into some previous publications have been corrected, and, for 
the sake of comparison, the percentages of bone phosphate of 
lime, calculated on the dry basis, have been added: 



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Moisture at 100° C . .. 

Organic matter and com- 
bined water 

Carbonic acid 

Equivalent to Carbonate 
of lime 

Phosphoric acid 

Equivalent to bone phos- 
phate of lime 

Sand 

Bone phosphate of lime 
on dry basis 



p. c. 

3.68 



4.78 
4.68 



10.64 
2i.61 



55 91 
11.55 



p. c 



4.28 



9 73 

2(3.68 



58 24 
12.41 



04 



p. c. 
1 50 

5 59 

3.89 


p. c. 

0.00 

5 26 
4.47 


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1 10 07 
3.55 


p c. 

0.84 

4.22 
3.54 


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079 

5.80 
3.61 


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0.57 

4.31 

3.79 


8 84 
25.75 


10.16 
27.01 


8.06 
2711 


8 04 
27.26 


8.20 
25.14 


8.61 
27.26 


56.21 
11.37 


58.95 
11.37 


59.18 
15 39 


59.51 
9.06 


54.88 
13.30 


59.51 
9.06 


57.07 


58 95 




60 00 


55. 32 


59.85 



3.75 
4.34 



26.78 



58.46 
11.77 



14 

ROCK FROM UPPER WANDO RIVER. 

P. C. 

Moisture 3.85 

Organic matter 4.81 

Carbonic Acid 4.89 

Carbonate of lime 1 1. 1 1 

Phosphoric acid 25. 14 

Bone Phosphate of lime 54-88 

Sand and insoluble matter 12.06 

Bone phosphate of lime, dry basis 57-08 

WANDO RIVER— OPPOSITE CAINHOY. 

P. C. 

Moisture ■ 4-79 

Organic matter 3.45 

Carbonic acid 3.36 

Carbonate of lime . . 7.64 

Phosphoric acid 22.36 

Bone phosphate of lime 4881 

Sand and insoluble matter 24.02 

Bone phosphate of lime, dry basis 51.26 

NORTHEASTERN R. R. DEPOSIT— NEAR MOUNT 

HOLLY. 

(Average of four analyses of crude, clean rock.) 

P. C. 

Moisture 0.91 

Phosphoric acid 26.98 

Bone phosphate of lime 58-92 

Sand and insoluble matter 9.70 

Bone phosphate of lime, dry basis 59-45 

The carbonate of lime in these samples was small in amount 
and was not determined. 

NORTHEASTERN R. R. DEPOSIT— NEAR MOUNT 

HOLLY. 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Bone phosphate of lime ' 59-35 

Carbonate of lime 12.28 

Sand and insoluble matter 6.57 

Oxide of iron and alumina 4- J 3 



15 

FINES ROCK— NORTHEASTERN R. R. DEPOT- 
ABOVE OTRANTO, 
(Average of six analyses.) 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Phosphoric acid 23.88 

Bone phosphate of lime 52.43 

Sand and insoluble matter 18.96 

The carbonate of lime in one of these samples was 16.43 P er 
cent. 

NORTHEASTERN R. R. DEPOT— BETWEEN JUNC- 
TION AND TEN MILE HILL. 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Organic matter 6.58 

Carbonic acid 351 

Carbonate of lime 7.98 

Phosphoric acid 26.68 

Bone phosphate of lime 58.25 

Sand and insoluble matter 11.89 

EDISTO REGION— DEPOSITS WEST OF RIVER. 
(Average of over 100 analyses made by Shepard Laboratory.) 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Bone phosphate of lime 60.46 

Carbonate of lime 9.64 

Sand and insoluble matter 9. 16 

Oxide of iron and alumina 3.62 

The bone phosphate of lime in these samples ranged from 
58.41 per cent, to 63.86 per cent. 

EDISTO-ASHEPOO REGION— NEARER ASHEPOO 

RIVER. 

(Average six analyses.) 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Bone phosphate of lime 61.74 

Carbonate of lime 11. 01 

Sand and insoluble matter 6.88 

Oxide of iron and alumina , 2.08 

EDISTO-ASHEPOO REGION— NEAR ASHEPOO RIVER. 
(Average five analyses.) 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Organic matter 5.87 

Carbonic acid 3.78 



16 

Carbonate of lime 8.59 

Phosphoric acid 28.47 

Bone phosphate of lime 62. 14 

Sand and insoluble matter 7-7S 

BEAUFORT RIVER ROCK. 

(Average two analyses.) 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Organic matter 3.42 

Carbonic acid 1.71 

Carbonate of lime 3.90 

Phosphoric acid 24.51 

Bone phosphate of lime 53.51 

Sand and insoluble matter 22.27 

In many of the nodules, or lumps, of rock the phosphoric acid 
is not uniformly distributed through the mass. As a general 
thing the outer shell, especially where this is enamelled and 
harder than the core, contains more phosphoric acid than the 
latter, sometimes to the extent of 1 per cent, or more. 

It is important to emphasize the fact that the above analyses, 
except in the cases of cargoes, represent crude rock, carefully 
washed and, generally, dried, but neither burnt nor calcined. 

In the early days of the industry the rock was dried in covered 
bins, open at the front, by hot air distributed through perfor- 
rated pipes laid under it near the bottom of the piles. 

The drying action was necessarily very uneven. The rock 
next to the pipes was thoroughly burnt and frequently calcined, 
particularly near the point of entrance of the hot air, where the 
heat was, of course, greatest. Toward the opposite end of the 
shed, and as the distance of the rock from the pipes increased, 
the heat and drying action diminished very materially, so that 
the bulk of the mass received little more than a fairly thorough 
drying, while a smaller portion was practically unaffected. In 
addition to this the cost of the pipes was great and their dura- 
bility small. 

This method was ultimately abandoned, and the system now 
in use was adopted, consisting, briefly, in burning the rock in 
she'ds, open on all sides, on wood carefully piled to permit a 
proper draft. The heat evolved is intense,* that furnished by 
the wood being materially increased by the combustion of the 
organic material of the rock, and also by the formation and 
combustion of water gas. 



17 

Where the process is properly conducted, all of the rock, ex- 
cept a small thickness on the surface and towards the sides, is 
more or less burnt, while the portion at the centre and near the 
bottom of the piles is more or less calcined, By this method of 
drying, the moisture content of the mass, instead of being 
nearly 2 per cent., as with the old method, is frequently under 
one-half of I per cent. 

The amount of carbonic acid gas expelled is also greater than 
under the old conditions. As a consequence, the grade of the 
rock, as shown by its content of bone phosphate of lime, is ma- 
terially increased, an increase which is evidenced by the fact 
that the same rock which was formerly sold on a minimun guar- 
antee of 55 per cent-, and afterwards 57 per cent, of this con- 
stituent, is now required to meet a standard of 60 per cent. 

In considering, therefore, the analyses which have been given 
above it is important to bear these facts in mind and to remem- 
ber, for example, that a rock running 60.46 per cent, of bone 
phosphate of lime, like the crude Edisto rock, the analysis of 
which is given above, would readily yield, after calcination, 64 
to 65 per cent, of that constituent. 

EXTENT AND QUANTITY OF THE DEPOSITS. 

In the absence of a systematic survey of the marine and river 
territory, and with the necessarily imperfect knowledge of the 
details of the land beds prevalent in the early period of the 
industry, the data necessary for an accurate estimate of the 
extent and probable output of the deposits were largely lack- 
ing. 

The estimates then made were therefore based on general con- 
siderations and, with the varying conditions of occurrence and 
availability assumed, were very widely apart, some indeed being 
scarcely more than wild guesses. 

The information afforded by the continued operation of the 
land and river deposits, the increased knowledge, in a general 
way, of the former, and the practical exhaustion of the bulk of 
the latter have of course lessened to a considerable extent the 
difficulties of the situation. 

In point of fact, however, it is only within the last few years 
that some of the largest land properties have been prospected 
with any degree of accuracy, and it having been impossible, up 
to the time of the former publication of this article, (April 1904), 
to obtain the results thus arrived at all that' could then be 
reliably stated was that notwithstanding the large amount of 



18 

material already excavated, (7,143,216 tons of land rock and 
4,628,158 tons of river rock, as shown by the valuable statistical 
tables prepared by Major E. Willis for the Centennial issue of 
The News and Courier), there still remained a very large amount 
of rock, especially of the land variety, sufficient to furnish a 
supply for many years. 

Since that publication, the writer has obtained private informa- 
tion which seems to justify him in estimating the amount of rock 
remaining in the land deposits at between 9,000,000 and 11,000, 
000 tons. 

Prominence has also been recently given to the claim that 
there are rock beds of consequence in the marshes adjoining the 
rivers and estuaries of the State, but nothing definite is known, 
or has been disclosed, in reference thereto. 

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE PHOSPHATE REGION AND 
OCCURRENCE OF THE BEDS. 

As has been stated above, the phosphate beds of South Caro- 
lina lie entirely within the coast region, in what has been called 
the ''Lower Pine Beit" of the State. 

This coast region is freely intersected by numerous rivers, 
creeks and arms of the sea, the result being a series of low and, 
generally, long islands lying immediately on the ocean, and a 
chain of connected navigable waterways separating the islands 
from the mainland. 

This chain of waterways, with the rivers and creeks flowing 
from the interior, offers a safe and economical transportation 
from the mines to the points of consumption or loading. 

The average elevation of the region is very low, hardly ex- 
ceeding ten feet above high water mark. Occasional elevations 
of twenty to thirty feet are found, but these are very rare. 

Numerous marshes and swamps occur in the neighborhood of 
the various streams, and the low lands in the region, therefore, 
cover a large area. The phosphate deposits occur most gener- 
ally in the "leads," probably old waterways, extending up from 
the streams, and this has been a controlling reason for the fact 
that the depth of the rock below the surface is generally small, 
and its excavation, therefore, rendered very economical. 

The phosphate beds themselves are generally level, almost 
horizontal, and not following the contour of the surface, and 
hence the drainage of the trenches by which it is excavated is 
made comparatively simple. Where the ground rises the depth 



19 

to the rock increases, and with the increase the availability of 
the rock comes into question. 

It is scarcely possible to make an accurate estimate of the 
average depth of the rock below the surface. The average depth 
of the areas already mined would probably be between six and 
eight feet. 

The rock beds are found at all depths, from a few inches 
down to twenty feet or more, in some few instances lying practi- 
cally at the surface. 

As has been noted, the depth has an important bearing on 
the cost of excavation. For many years the extreme limit of 
economical working was considered to be six feet, and practi- 
cally no deposits of greater depth below the surface were mined. 
Improved methods and experience showed that this limit could 
be extended to greater depths, varying with the surface condi- 
tions, the character of the overburden, and the difficulty of 
handling it. 

STRATIFICATION OF THE DEPOSITS. 

In his article on "South Carolina Phosphates" (1880) Professor 
Shepard, whose long connection with the phosphate industry of 
the State, and whose personal explorations and investigations of 
both its marine and land deposits, especially, however, of the 
former, gave him peculiar opportunities of observation over a 
wide extent of territory, gives the following description of the 
mode of occurrence of the "ordinary superficial beds of phos- 
phate — those now worked." 

"A— LAND DEPOSITS. 

I. Soil and subsoil; a few inches to a foot in depth. 

II. A light colored siliceous clay, iron stained in places, and 
containing much fine, transparent sand, and minute scales of 
silvery mica, with little calcareous matter — one foot or more in 
thickness. 

III. (Wanting in the more superficial beds.) A blue, argil- 
laceous (clayey) marl, probably altered marsh mud. It does 
not adhere to the tongue or give an argillaceous odor. Frag- 
ments of recent shells occur in this deposit. Its depth is about 
two feet. 

IV. A thin layer of coarse sand — one to three inches in depth. 

V. The phosphate nodules, in either a loose siliceous or a 
bluish or rich buff colored argillaceous marl, frequently accom- 
panied with abundant fossil bones and teeth. The upper 
nodules are often harder, the lower softer, and at some land 



20 

localities exhibit a gradual transition, by loss of cohesion and 
decrease of phosphatic content, into 

VI. A marl, highly phosphatic toward the rock-bed and 
occasionally containing twenty to thirty per centum of phos- 
phates, but at the depth of a few inches containing only ten to 
twenty per centum of these constituents. 

VII. Argillaceous or Arenaceous (sandy) marls, containing 
seven to ten per centum of phosphate. 

"B— RIVER DEPOSITS. 

Beneath the river deposits occur either: 

I. A gray marl — sometimes in nodules resembling phosphate, 
with 5 per centum of phosphates, underlaid by 

II. A white, hard marl, enclosing phosphatic grains, and 
containing three to five per centum of phosphates (Wando 
River;) or 

I. A green sand — with some clay, and rich in black phos- 
phatic grains, occurring with and beneath the phosphatic rock, 
containing 15 per centum of phosphates (Stono River;) or 

I. Hard marls — poor in phosphates (one-half to one per 
centum,) unless their tops be coated with phosphate rock 
(Coosaw River.)" 

DOUBLE STRATIFICATION. 

An extremely interesting fact, especially in connection with 
the question of the deposition of the beds, is the occurrence of 
two superimposed strata of rock. 

These occurrences have been reported at various points in the 
phosphate region, but their area has been generally so restricted 
that most of the observers, practical miners, have declined to be- 
lieve them to be anything but parts of the same bed, with an 
accidental interposition of clay or sand. 

Several instances that have come under the observation of the 
writer show clearly, in his opinion, the inaccuracy of this view. 

Some years since, in examining some deposits on the upper 
edge of the Edisto region, two such instances were observed. 
On one tract there was a fairly large body of rock, of no very 
great thickness, which was found to analyze as follows: 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Bone phosphate of lime 50.54 

Carbonate of lime 12. 17 

Sand and insoluble matter 19. 14 

Oxide of iron and alumina 2.93 



21 

In one portion of the deposit there occurs at a few inches 
above the regular stratum, and separated from it, if the recollec- 
tion of the writer is accurate, by a more or less sandy clay, 
another heavy seam, ten to eighteen inches in thickness, of a 
hard material somewhat resembling sandstone, which on analy- 
sis was found to contain: 

(On dry basis.) P. C. 

Bone phosphate of lime 44-97 

Sand and insoluble matter 31.22 

Oxide of iron and alumina 3.01 

On another tract, about a mile or so from the above, a similar 
double stratification is found, except that in the upper stratum 
the excess of silica is replaced by carbonate of lime. Unfortu- 
nately, owing to a press of work, no analysis was made of this 
material. 

The most interesting occurence of the kind is found at the 
mines of the Bolton Mining Company. The deposits mined by 
this company have always been of great interest, as being the 
most extensively and highly developed instance of marsh mining 
in the state. The rock of these deposits, while partaking more 
of the character of river rock than of the land varieties, yet oc- 
cupies an intermediate position between them. 

At a point of one of the dredge cuts on this property there 
occurs a very clearly defined instance of a double seam, extend- 
ing for a length of about three hundred feet along the line of 
.the cut. 

The average stratification at this point may be stated as fol- 
lows : 

a. Soil and mucky marsh mud — six to seven feet. 

b. Sand — three feet. 

c. Upper rock stratum — three to six inches in thickness, 
lying entirely in sand. The rock is solid, nodular, black and 
hard, like Stono River rock. The nodules vary in size from 
pieces three to four inches in diameter downward, being gener- 
ally rather oblong in shape. With the rock occurs, almost per- 
sistently, a little rotten shell, generally in very small fragments. 

d. Blue sandy clay — twelve to thirty-six inches. 

e. Lower rock stratum — with an average thickness of about 
eight inches, entirely embedded in much sandy, blue clay. The 
rock is generally brown, sometimes black. Some pieces are 
partly brown, and partly black. It is not so hard or solid as the 
rock of the upper stratum. 



22 

It occurs chiefly in lumps of three or four inches in diameter, 
and is very much perforated, the perforations being entirely 
511ed with the blue clay of the bed. At times these perforations 
are very small at the surface, and are seen only when the lumps 
are broken. The blue clay forms more than half of the mass 
of the seam. , 

f. Blue clay — six inches. 

g. Marl. 

At both ends of the three hundred foot line the rock strata 
come together, the intervening blue clay disappearing, and for 
more than a thousand feet, to the end of the present cut, the 
upper black stratum, with the slight intermixture of rotten 
shell, lies immediately on top of the lower stratum, the differ- 
ence in physical appearance of the two being distinctly visible. 

Apparently the lower stratum was first deposited in a shallow 
basin, its surface following more or less that of the marl and 
clay beneath. The depression, or shallow basin, thus formed 
was filled with blue clay, the thickness of which varied with the 
depth of the basin, the edges of which were left uncovered. Thus, 
when the upper seam was deposited, while separated from the 
lower, within the area of the basin, by more or less mud, it was 
in immediate contact with the lower stratum at the edges. 

The following analyses of the rock from the upper and lower 
strata are of interest in showing the difference in character of 
the material, at least at one point of the occurrence, and as an 
evidence of the dual nature of the deposits. The samples were 
carefully hand washed and dried before analysis. In the case 
of the rock from the lower stratum, the permeation of the lumps 
by the clay made it necessary to break them into comparatively 
small pieces, in order to get rid of the latter, this being neces- 
sary to show the character of the rock material proper. 

(On Dry Basis.) 

Upper Lower 

Stratum. Stratum. 

P. C. P. C. 

Carbonic acid 4.39 4.45 

Carbonate of lime 9.98 10 1 J 

Phosphoric acid , 27.80 26.7; 

Bone phosphate of lime. ... , , 60.71 58.47 

Sand and insoluble matter 10.46 12.68 

Oxide of iron and alumina 1.75 1.76 



23 

MARL UNDER LOWER STRATUM. 

(On dry basis.) 

P. C. 

Carbonic acid 30.20 

Carbonate of lime , , , , 68.64 

Phosphoric acid 4. 5 1 

Bone phosphate of lime 9.84 

Sand and insoluble matter 12.88 

The rock of the upper stratum is exceptionally high in bone 
phosphate of lime, the quality of the lower stratum being as 
high as, if not higher than, the average of the best class of rock 
of this locality. 

The mode of occurrence and the differences, both chemical 
and physical, between the two strata, as shown above, seem to 
point conclusively to an entirely separate deposition of the two 
seams, and to go far towards settling what has long been, as has 
been said, a much mooted question. 

Similar instances are said to occur, though not to the same 
extent, at the old Wando Mines, near Bee's Ferry, and on the 
adjoining property of the Charleston Mining Company, but it 
has not been feasible to secure information in regard thereto 
sufficiently detailed to permit description. 

GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF THE CHARLESTON 

BASIN. 

The calcareous strata of the Charleston basin, as outlined by 
Professor M. Tuomey, occur in an irregular area about seventy- 
five miles long and sixty miles wide, extending from the Santee 
River to the Ashepoo, and embracing within its limits the land 
phosphate deposits of the State. 

The geological history of this basin has been carefully and 
fully treated, first by Professor Tuomey, (Report on the Geology 
of South Carolina," Columbia, 1846), and afterward by Professor 
Francis S. Holmes, ("The Phosphate Rocks of South Carolina," 
Charleston, 1870), their conclusions being based on their studies 
of the various formations of the basin, with the fossils occuring 
therein, and in the case of Professor Holmes, on the observations 
made during the boring of the old artesian well (Wentworth 
Street) in Charleston, which was commenced in 1846 and ulti- 
mately carried to a depth of 1,260 feet. 

Artesian wells subsequently sunk, one in 1872 to a depth of 
323 feet at Sineath's Station, thirteen miles from Charleston, 
and the other in 1876 in Charleston (Citadel Green), and carried 



24 

to a depth of 1,970 feet, were both carefully studied, and have 
afforded valuable information as to the extent and occurrence of 
the several formations. 

The results of the various observations may be briefly sum- 
marized, as follows : 

The lowest formation so far reached is the Cretaceous. The 
marls and limestones of this formation outcrop on the Pee-Dee 
River, but (according to Holmes) were reached in the Wentworth 
Street well at a depth of 800 feet. 

According to Professor James Hall, of the New York State Mu- 
seum of Natural History, to whom the material obtained from the 
Citadel Green well was submitted for study and identification, 
the Cretaceous is reached at 600 feet below the surface, extend- 
ing continuously from that point to the bottom of the well, a 
distance of nearly fourteen hundred feet. 

While the marls of this formation, of a dark bluish gray color, 
contain only from 30 to 40 per cent, of carbonate of lime, the 
limestones are much richer, having from 60 to 75 per cent, of this 
constituent. 

Immediately above the Cretaceous lies the Eocene, called by 
Ruffin, on account of its thickness and richness, ''the great Caro- 
linian marl bed." Its thickness was estimated by Holmes to be 
seven hundred feet, based on old well, but the results of the 
new well would indicate this estimate to be too high, the true 
thickness at that point being some five hundred feet. It is sub- 
divided into the Santee, Cooper and Ashley marl beds. 

The oldest and lowest of these are the Santee, composed 
principally of hard shells and corals or corallines forming 
Tuomey's "coralline bed of the Charleston basin." The marls 
of this group, white in color when dried, are of very high grade, 
containing in some cases as much as 97 per cent, of carbonate 
of lime, but averaging 94 per cent, of this ingredient. 

The marls of the Cooper River beds, next in age to the Santee 
beds and lying above them, are harder than those of the Ashley 
beds, beneath which they occur, and richer in carbonate of lime, 
the amount of which varies from 42 per cent, to 95 per cent, in 
different varieties. As might be expected, however, they are 
poorer in bone phosphate of lime, of which they contain only 
from a trace to one and one-half per cent. (Tuomey, p. 236.) 

The Ashley beds were estimated by Professor Holmes to be 
about two hundred and sixty feet thick. The marls composing 
them have from 36 to j6 per cent, of carbonate of lime, but 
contain from 6 to 9 per cent, of phosphate of lime. 



25 

The fossils of the Cooper and Ashley marl beds consist chiefly 
of remains of "cartilaginous fish, especially ol the shark family, 
though they also contain numerous bones and teeth of cetaceans 
or whaie-like animals." (Holmes, p. 19.) Above the marl lie 
thin strata of sand and blue clay containing many fossil sharks' 
teeth and bones of cetaceans, forming what is known as "the 
Ashley fish bed." 

Next in order come the Post-Pleiocene sands and the strata 
containing the phosphate nodules and, above these, clay, sand 
and alluvial deposits. 

The phosphate deposits, from the identity of their fossil re- 
mains with those of the subjacent marl, were considered by 
Tuomey, to whom they presented themselves as "marl stones," 
as being of the same formation as the latter, (pp. 164, 165,) 
but after subsequent study, in the light of the development of 
scientific knowledge, they were located by Professor Holmes in 
the Post-Pleiocene age. 

This, however, is not the only horizon showing phosphatic 
stones. One specimen taken from the depth of 1,840 feet in the 
Citadel Green well contained 64.88 per cent, of phosphate of 
lime, 5.6g per cent, of carbonate of lime, and 2.62 per cent, of 
sand and insoluble matter. 

In the Sineath's Station well this occurrence was more fre- 
quent. Speaking of it, Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr., 
(Rural Carolinian, August, 1873,) says: 

"Phosphate of lime to the amount of 50 per cent, more or 
less, occurs in layers of large nodules at the depth of 26, 70 and 
no feet ; and in pebbles at 280 and 312 feet; to the amount of 30 
per cent, in comparatively large nodules at 104 and 125 feet, of 
over 5 per cent, in the upper layers of marl, gradually diminish- 
ing in amount with the increasing depth, until present only in 
traces in the stratum superior to that containing phosphatic 
pebbles (280 feet.) At greater depths than 280 feet the amount 
of phosphate appears to coincide with the greater or less per 
centage of the black phosphatic grains." 

The table of analytical results accompanying this article is of 
great interest, and the Journal in which it appeared being gen- 
erally inaccessible, it is reproduced here: 



26 



Depth of 
stratum. 



Character of 
each stratum, 





o> 








as 




At 




at 


o 


-t-> O 




CA . 


o 


aj ft© 


a-o 


o o 


3 o^ 


X eS 


cflo 


Pw 


^ 



•So 








s 


oS 


CjO . 
fc>.0 © 

P cS § 


* 


60 


O'OrP 


o 


CB 


H 


EH 


£ 



GO 



ft. 

17 to 20 
26 to 30 

do 
31 
46 
70 
85 
90 
104 
110 to 112 

do 
125 to 128 

do 
145 
170 



280 

296 

287 to 290 

300 to 305 

305 to 306 

307 

309 to 311 

312 to 313 

do 
315 to 316 
321 to 322 
323 ' 



Clay 

Phosphatic nodules.... 

Marl 

Marl , 

A rgillaceous marl 

Phosphatic nodules.... 

Argillaceous marl , 

Argillaceous marl 

Phosphatic nodules . . , 
Phosphatic nodules — 
Argillaceous marl** . 
Phosphatic nodules 

Hard marl 

Argillaceous marl 

Argillaceous marl 

Argillaceous marl 

Argillaceous marl . 



Phosphatic pebbles.. . . 

Argillaceous marl 

Marl and phosph. grains. 

Argillaceous marl 

Sandy marl 

Sandy marl 

Hard marl 

Phosphatic pebbles 

Hard pebbly marl 

Sandy limestone 

Firm limestone 

Sandy limestone 



p. c. 


p. c. 


0.42 


0.92 


26.79 


58.48 


3.07 


6.70 


3.01 


6.57 


2.03 


4.43 


22 72 


49.59 


1.26 


2 74 


1.51 


3.30 


13.38 


29.20 


23 60 


5E.52 


10.65 


23 24 


15.81 


34.91 


1.23 


2.68 


traces 




traces 




traces 




traces j 




22.47 


49.05 


0.60 


1.31 


5.96 


13.01 


3.37 


7.37 


0.90 


1.96 


0.80 


1.75 


0.63 


1.37 


27.72 


60.52 


2 47 


5.39 


1.02 


2.22 


0.95 


2.07 


1.05 


2.29 



p. c. 

4.73 

4.00 
26.46 
26.64 
24.55 

2.70 
24.78 
24 20 
17.30 

2.53 
15.67 
13.95 
14.79 
16.87 
22.74 
23 54 
22.22 
21.26 

3.80 
27.63 

18.18 
2».23 
13.93 
19.39 
3.85 
12.46 
21.62 
25.42 
18.00 



p. C. 
10 75 

9.09 
60.14 
60.54 
55.79 

6.14 
56.32 
55.00 
39.38 

5.75 
44.70 
31.70 
33.61 
38.34 
51.68 
53.50 
50.50 
48.32 

8.66 
62.79 

41 32 
45.98 
31.66 
44.06 

8.75 
28 32 
49 13 
57.77 
40.91 



p. c. 


p. c. 




* 


* 


* 


39.90 


0.75 


* 


* 


41.99 


0.99 


34.02 


traces 


33.76 


0.56 


* 


* 


42.08 


1.09 


35.82 


0.25 


43.52 


traces 


41.82 


0.75 


f 




23.70 


* 


36.59 


traces 


* 


* 


35.68 


* 


34.86 


0.37 


35.94 


traces 


40.52 


* 


27.44 


2.95 


37.35 


traces 


30.48 


traces 


21.99 


* 


30.36 


1.05 


43.42 


traces 


27.90 


traces 


35.16 


traces 


39.23 


traces 


27.84 


traces 



p.c. 
70.00 

4.82 
18.92 
17. 33 
34.21 
27 19 
21.14 
13.77 
12.61 
23.26 
15.04 
15.14 
46.14 
31.50 
24.48 
27.32 
26.02) 
27.06 f 
14.48 
18.16 
26.19 
16.00 
43.55 
56.17 
41.09 

4.69 
52.28 
30.81 
25.94 
45.80 



•^Undetermined . 



^Including phosphatio nodules. 



The interest of these phosphatic occurrences lies, of course, 
in their bearing on the mode of formation of the main super- 
ficial deposits, which are the only ones yet discovered of extent 
or value. 

ORIGIN AND MODE OF FORMATION OF THE PHOS- 
PHATE BEDS. 

It is apart from the purpose of this paper, even if its limits 
permitted, to discuss the various interesting theories that have 
been propounded by distinguished scientists in explanation of 
the origin and mode of formation of the phosphate beds. 

With the large uncertainty always accompanying speculations 
of this character, also, it would be the height of rashness to assert 
any one of them as absolutely true and to reject the others, and 
the writer has no such purpose. 

It may be of interest, however, to make a short presentation 
of what seems to him to have been the probable course of events, 
or rather the one appearing to agree most closely with the fol- 
lowing more important facts of the case, as they present them- 
selves. 



27 

The internal structure of the nodules and the fossils embedded 
therein, as distinguished from those merely intermingled with 
them, are identical with those of the Eocene marl. 

In the land deposits, in the strata composed of the phosphatic 
nodules, the sands and clays or argillaceous marls, and main marl 
bed beneath them, the content of phosphoric acid has been 
shown to diminish from the top downward. 

In the river deposits, the clays, etc., between the rock and 
marl are absent, and in some of them, like those of Coosaw and 
Bull Rivers, the marl has only a very small content of phosphate of 
lime, while that under Stono River, on the other hand, is like 
the land deposits in this particular. 

While, as has been stated, the presence of phosphatic material 
has been shown at great depths under the surface, the indications 
are that such deposits or layers are of very slight extent, as, in- 
deed, would be expected from the comparatively small amounts 
of phosphoric acid occurring in the marl at those depths. 

The factors necessary for the formation of phosphatic nodules 
or lumps are a material containing phosphate of lime, usually and 
probably a marl or limestone with a greater or less content of 
phosphoric acid, and an abundant supply of water, carrying in 
solution carbonic acid gas, to act as a solvent and carrier of the 
carbonate and phosphate of lime. Both of these factors are, and 
doubtless always were, abundantly present in the Charleston 
basin. The marls under the land deposits always contain from 
5 to 9 or ioper cent, of phosphate of lime near the surface, and a 
persistent though gradually diminishing quantity as the depth 
increases, derived, probably, from the vast number of great fishes 
that swarmed in the Eocene ocean. 

The solvent powers of water containing free carbonic acid, 
when acting on carbonate or phosphate of lime, are well known. 
While this action is very much increased, at higher pressures, on 
account of the larger amount of carbonic acid gas absorbed under 
such conditions, it has been shown by Bischof that, even at the 
ordinary atmospheric pressure, the surface waters of the earth 
contain five times as much carbonic acid as is necessary to hold 
in solution their normal contents of lime, and have therefore an 
ample excess to permit a considerable solvent action both on car- 
bonate and phosphate of lime. The action of such waters, also, 
on phosphate of lime, while very much less than on the carbonate, 
is very much increased by the presence of chloride of sodium 
(common salt), a salt which is not only an important constituent 
of sea water, but one of frequent occurrence in surface waters in 



28 



general. 

In a conspicuous degree are the requirements of the case met 
by the subterranean waters of the Charleston basin. 

At all depths, from the 1,970 feet of the new artesi. n well 
and the 1,260 feet of the Wentworth Street well to the numer- 
ous 300 to 400 foot wells that dot the vicinity of Charleston, there 
are present, besides considerable amounts of bicarbonates and 
chlorides, important quantities of free carbonic acid gas in solu- 
tion. The superficial soil waters also, in swampy localities, 
carry in solution notable amounts of organic acids derived from 
the decomposition of the residues of the more or less abundant, 
not to say luxuriant vegetation. 

It seems probable that the upper portions of the comparatively 
soft marl, weakened doubtless by the perforations of marine 
boring animals, were torn away from the parent bed by various 
natural agencies, chiefly, no doubt, by the tidal action of the 
Eocene ocean, and broken into fragments of various shapes and 
sizes which were ultimately subjected to the action of the solvent 
waters. 

The continued action of these waters removed from the marl 
fragments the greater part of their carbonate of lime, together 
with a much smaller proportion of their phosphate, leaving be- 
hind the bulk of the phosphate, the insoluble matter of the 
original mass and varying amounts of carbonate. As the waters 
became saturated with the dissolved phosphate, it is probable 
that diminutions of temperature or pressure, assisted by the 
well known tendency of phosphate of lime to concentrate, 
caused a deposition thereof in the residual masses, replacing to 
a greater or less extent the carbonate that had been lost. It is 
also practically certain that subterranean waters, which on es- 
caping to the surface could not retain all the phosphate taken 
up at the higher pressures of lower depths, were of material 
assistance in the process of ph(5sphatization. The perforation of 
the fragments, by offering a greater surface to the solvent, no 
doubt greatly facilitated its action. 

The nodules were not formed in the positions in which they 
are now found, else they would probably lie directly on the 
parent marl. After formation, they were caught up and trans- 
ported by the agency of the enormous tides of the Post-Pleiocene 
seas and deposited in valleys, hollows or old waterways, in which 
the marl bed -had been covered by the clays and sands of a sub- 
sequent age. 



29 

It seems almost certain that, this transportation having been 
effected and the nodules collected in their final resting places, a 
secondary action took place; that phosphate of lime in solution 
in soil waters was deposited therefrom and, penetrating only 
the outer portions of the nodules, increased the phosphatic con- 
tent of those parts. 

It is true that the same enrichment could have been produced 
by a more energetic action of the solvent waters on the outer 
portions of the nodules and that the cores, or interior portions, 
having been less exposed to such action, would have had a smaller 
proportion of their carbonate of lime replaced by phosphate, 
and doubtless this cause did operate to some extent. 

The enrichment of the phosphoric acid content of the upper 
part of the deposits, however, and more especially the cementa- 
tion of the nodules into continous sheets, could only have 
been the result of some secondary phosphatization, which must 
have taken place after the final location had been effected. 

To this or some similar anterior action are possibly due the 
phosphoric acid of the strata between the phosphate beds and 
the marl and the increased percentage of the same constituent 
in the upper portion of the marl bed, to which attention has 
been called. 

It may be well to notice the fact that the source of the phos- 
phoric acid of the nodules has been sought elsewhere than in 
the phosphatic Eocene marls, notably in the accumulated 
remains of animal life, on account of the large number of fossil 
bones and teeth intermingled with the nodules, though not in- 
corporated with them. 

To the general consideration that, where there is an immediate 
and obvious source of supply, it is scarcely necessary to seek for 
one that is remote, must be added the very striking fact that 
these very fossil bones have been preserved because they them- 
selves have undergone enrichment by phosphatization and, in- 
stead of having been the source of the enriching agent, have 
been subjected to its action. 

The absence, in Coosaw and other rivers, of the beds of clay 
and similar material found between the rock and marl of the 
land deposits might seem to indicate a formation in situ. But 
the practical absence of phosphoric acid in the marl beneath, 
and the occurrence of lumps consisting partly of rock and partly 
of unaltered marl, containing over 10 per cent, of phosphate of 
lime show that this was not the case, but that the material was 
washed down from the place of formation. 



30 



The highly polished nodules, sometimes observed, owe their 
lustre, no doubt, to the great attrition of the original transpor- 
tation, enhanced, possibly, by the hardening effects of the sec- 
ondary phosphatization. 

To what the usually darker color of the river rock is due, it 
is impossible to state with certainty. The conditions of deposit 
in the double seam at Bolton mines, where the rock of the upper 
stratum appears to be identical with that found in Stono River, 
near-by, might be taken to indicate that, in some cases at least, 
the river deposits were formed after the land deposits, and it is 
possible, that having been subjected, under changed conditions, 
to the action of waters more highly charged with vegetable mat- 
ter, they derived their deeper color from a larger deposition of 
carbonaceous material, a substance which, in point of fact, is 
generally found in greater quantity in river rock than in that 
from the land deposits. 

IS THE PHOSPHATIZATION PROCESS STILL 

GOING ON? 

The factors necessary for the formation of phosphate rock, 
p.ointed out above, being still present in the swamps and waters 
of the state, though to a much smaller extent, of course, than 
at the time of the main deposition of the beds, and probably 
having always been so, it is a natural assumption that the pro- 
cess of phosphatization has been more or less continuous to the 
present day. 

From the nature of the case, however, it has been difficult to 
secure conclusive evidence of the recent continuance of this 
growth, as it has been called. 

Specimen lumps consisting partly of unaltered marl and 
partly of phosphate rock, and other lumps appearing to occupy 
a position between the two have been cited in evidence, but ap- 
pearing to be susceptible of possible explanation on other grounds, 
they can scarcely be regarded as conclusive. 

Various objects, also, of human manufacture, found in the 
bed, with small adhering masses of phosphate, have also 
lacked conclusiveness, the article's not being imbedded in the 
phosphate, so far as the writer has been able to learn, and the 
adhesive process having possibly and probably been merely one 
of cementation. 

Especial interest, therefore, attaches to a specimen dredged, 
in February last (1904), from the bed of Stono River, opposite 



31 



Bolton Mines, by Dredge No. I, Captain John May, of the 
Stono Mining Company. 

The article in question, which lay under eight feet of sand, 
is an iron hook about five inches long, in a fine state of preser- 
vation, though of course highly oxidized, around the shank of 
which is a continuous ring of phosphate rock. 




IRON HOOK WITH RING OF PHOSPHATE ROCK. 

Both the hook and the phosphatic mass surrounding it are 
clearly shown in the accompanying photographic reproduction. 

It would appear that falling overboard from some vessel, or 
perhaps forming part of some anchor chain, the hook penetrated 
the soft marl, which was subsequently phosphatized, with the 
result shown. 

To avoid the unavoidable risk of injuring the specimen, only 
a small fragment has been removed, sufficient to verify its phos- 
phatic character, but not for quantitative determination. 

PHOSPHORIC ACID AND PHOSPHATE OF LIME. 

While the general question of manures, particularly in respect 
to the use and importance of their several constituent elements 
of plant food, manifestly lies without the scope of this article, 
it seems desirable to point out two facts which give pre-eminent 
importance to phosphatic manures and, therefore, to the raw 
materials of their manufacture. 



32 

These facts are, first, the comparatively scanty occurrence 
and more or less unavailable condition of phosphoric acid in the 
soil; and, second, and the more important of the two, that, 
unlike the more costly nitrogen, it cannot be derived with 
greater or less facility from the atmosphere, but that its re- 
moval from the soil can be compensated only by the addition of 
more or less expensive phosphatic manures. 

While in this last respect it resembles potash, a much smaller 
addition of the latter is usually required for crop nutrition, and 
its role is consequently less conspicuous. 

The history of phosphoric acid is remarkable for its compara- 
tively modern character and recent development; and this in 
spite of the fact that its principle elementary constituent was 
separated from its salts and recognized almost a century and a 
half before its own nature was discovered, and still longer before 
its general occurrence and great importance in the economy of 
nature were made manifest. 

It was not until about the year 1669, that Brand, a bankrupt 
Hamburg merchant, while searching for the philosopher's stone, 
separated from human urine a substance to which, from its 
striking property of luminosity in darkness, he gave the name 
of phosphorus, "light bringer." 

Though the remarkable properties of the newly discovered 
substance naturally attracted great attention among the scien- 
tists of the day, its method of separation remained a secret until 
it was rediscovered by Kunkel, of Rendsberg, whom Meyn (in 
his valuable monograph on natural phosphates, which has been 
freely followed in this connection), describes as the *' first great, 
really practically chemist." 

In 1688, nineteen years later, phosphorus was found in 
mustard seed by Albinus, and its presence thus shown in vege- 
table life as well as in the animal organism. 

The backward condition of chemical knowledge and experi- 
mental processes probably accounts for the fact that, while the 
new substance continued to attract great interest as a sort of 
scientific toy, its discovery remained otherwise barren of results. 

As phosphorus, on exposure to air, is converted by oxidation 
into phosphoric acid, escaping under the form of dense white 
fumes, the discovery of the latter was necessarily coincident 
with that of the former. 

The relationship between the two, however, does not seem to 
have suggested itself, the fumes being supposed to consist of a 
mixture of vitroil and muriatic acid. 



33 

This decidedly hazy view subsisted until 1743, when the true 
nature of the presumed mixture was discovered and phosphoric 
acid was identified as such. 

A quarter of a century later the next great step towards 
modern manuring was made by Gahn, a Swede, in his discovery 
of the occurrence of phosphoric acid in bones, and its subse- 
quent recognition as a common and indispensable constituent 
of all more highly organized animal life. 

About 1780, Gahn discovered the presence of phosphoric acid 
in the mineral kingdom in a specimen of phosphate of lead, and 
shortly afterwards Klaproth and Vanquelin showed several dif- 
ferent varieties of apatite to be composed of the same phosphate 
of lime as that which forms the earthy constituent of bones. 

"These," says Meyn," are the plain but significant com- 
mencements of the chemical discoveries as to the presence of 
phosphorus in animals, plants and minerals. None of the dis- 
interested naturalists to whom we are indebted therefor antici- 
pated, or could then anticipate, how boundlessly important 
these facts were to prove to their successors for the comprehen- 
sion of nature." He might well have added "and to mankind 
at large for its welfare and preservation." 

When the nineteenth century dawned, no great progress had 
been made in the development of phosphatic manures. Al- 
though the use of bones as manures had been begun about the 
middle of the previous century and had been continually in- 
creasing, their fertilizing value was ascribed to other consti- 
tuents than the phosphate of lime, to the gelatine and grease. 

Th. DeSaussure, in 1804, again called attention to the presence 
of phosphate of lime in animals, and to the fact that no one 
doubted that this salt was an essential constituent of bones. 
He also announced that he had found the same salt in the ashes 
of all vegetables he had examined therefor, and was of opinion 
that there was no reason for supposing that they could exist 
without it. 

The use of bones increased very rapidly, especially in Eng- 
land. To such an extent was this the case that, in 1822, more 
than 33,000 tons derived, it is said, "mostly from the battle- 
fields of the late wars," were imported into that country from 
Germany alone. So great was the demand that even catacombs, 
it is stated, were robbed to meet it. In 1859, tne importation 
into Great Britian had become 84,820 tons. 

In the meanwhile the accumulation of analytical evidence was 
bringing about the conviction that the invariable presence of 



34 

various salts in the ashes of plants was more than accidental, 
and that they were necessary to a proper development of the 
organism. 

When Justus Von Liebig showed this in 1840, and recom- 
mended the use of sulphuric acid as a solvent for the phosphate 
of lime in bones, to render it available for plant food, the final 
step was taken to the introduction of the present system of artifi- 
cial manures. 

DISCOVERY AND USE OF MINERAL PHOSPHATES. 

In 1 818 Berthier had shown the presence of phosphate of 
lime in nodular form at several localities in France, a discovery 
soon followed by similar ones in England. 

The successful application of sulphuric acid to bones at once 
suggested the possible utilization of these mineral phosphates 
by the same process. 

The first mixture of this kind was made, in 1841, by a Mr. 
Fleming, of Barrochan, England, who used English coprolites, 
mixing them with acid on his barn floor. 

Experiments with material made in this way were so success- 
ful that its use grew rapidly and the fertilizer industry, as 
now known, was inaugurated by the erection of a factory for 
its manufacture by J. B. Lawes, afterward knighted for his 
great and invaluable services to humanity as an agricultural in 
vestigator. 

THE FIRST STEPS IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 

In South Carolina, in the meanwhile, the need of fertilizers 
had made itself felt, and steps had been taken towards meet- 
ing it. 

In 1842, the services of Edmund Rufifin, a native of Virginia, 
were secured for an agricultural survey of the State, and his 
report, made in 1843, was devoted chiefly to its marl and lime- 
stone deposits. These he describes at great length, but, as re- 
gards their composition, confines himself to stating the percent- 
ages of carbonate of lime, in his opinion the only constituent of 
any agricultural value. 

In his examination of the Ashley River marls the phosphatic 
strata did not escape his observation, for in his description of 
these beds he mentions "lumps of stony hardness, full of im- 
pressions of shells, found in great quantity in the neighbor- 
hood," a few feet above the marl, that contained 6 per cent, of 
carbonate of lime. 



35 

The stony lumps were undoubtedly phosphate nodules, the 
Brisbane place alluded to by Mr. Ruffin ("J. S. Brisbane's land- 
ing, nine miles above Charleston,") having been either just 
above or below Bee's Ferry, the property in question ex- 
tending at that time on both sides of the ferry, on the eastern 
bank of the Ashley. 




Edmund Ruffin. 

Resigning at the end of the year, Mr. Ruffin was succeeded 
by Professor M. Tuomey. A part of the latter's report, dated 
November, 1846, is devoted to the calcareous manures of the 
State, but, besides giving the quantities of carbonate of lime in 
the various marls, he calls attention to the presence of phosphate 
of lime therein, the discovery of which he credits to Professor 
C. U. Shepard, Sr., and to Doctor J. Lawrence Smith, a pupil 
of Professor Shepard. 

He presents detailed analyses of the Ashley River marls, made 
by Professor Shepard, in all of which the presence of the phos- 
phate of lime is shown. 

In describing the Ashley beds Professor Tuomey says, 
(p. 164) : 

"In ascending the Ashley, from Charleston, marl is first seen 
at Bee's Ferry, on both sides of the river, below high water 
level. Both here and elsewhere, on the river, it is exceedingly 
uniform in structure and internal appearance, with the excep- 
tion of about two or three feet of the surface, which is composed 



36 

of irregular and waterworn fragments of marl stone, embedded 
in clay, and containing numerous fossils, in the state of casts. 
These fragments are scattered over the surface, so as, in some 
places, to offer obstruction to the cultivation of the land. On 
the Rev. Dr. Hanckel's plantation I had good opportunity of 
examining these fragments; and at Drayton H,all they have been 
gathered from the lawn and thrown into heaps." 

Professor Tuomey goes on to state that, though at first dis- 
posed to refer these fragments to a different formation from the 
underlying marl, he had found that nearly all the fossils were 
common to both, and concluded that the fragments were only 
the surface of the marl torn up and scattered. He concluded, 
also, that the dispersion of the fragments was of comparatively 
recent occurrence, and was probably due to the recession of the 
waters of the ocean at the time of the elevation of the Post 
Pleiocene to its present level. 

He says in continuation; "I have more than once alluded to 
the removal, by solution, from calcareous rocks, of a portion or 
all of the lime. This has taken place, to a great extent, in the 
beds under consideration. In many instances there is little 
more left than the silica and alumina of the marl, with a trace 
of lime; and the latter ingredient rarely exceeds 6 per cent." 

In making this statement Professor Tuomey doubtless had in 
mind the marl analyses of Ruffin, which he quotes further on 
in his report, particularly that of the "lumps of stony hard- 
ness," previously alluded to in the present article, when speak- 
ing of Ruffin's work. By the term "lime," also, he doubtless 
meant carbonate of lime. 

Tuomey evidently did not suspect the presence of phosphoric 
acid in the lumps in question, doubtless misled by the fact that, 
while he was aware that the agricultural value of the marls was 
enhanced by the presence of the phosphate of lime which had 
been shown to exist therein, he was of opinion that the phos- 
phate was of small value when compared with the carbonate. 
For he says specifically: "I apprehend that the carbonate of 
lime will always prove the constitutent of greatest importance, 
valuable as the phosphates are." (p. 235.) Pie could have been 
led to this opinion only by the great preponderance of the car- 
bonate, for in the appendix to his report he publishes several 
analyses of marl made by Professor Shepard, in which the latter 
gives the amounts of phosphate of lime present in the samples 
examined and then makes the following comments. (Tuomey's 
Report, page xxxvii) : 



3? 

"f*rior to these analyses, it was very difficult to account, in 
any very satisfactory manner, for the known efficacy of such 
marls in agriculture ; since the soils on which several of them 
had been employed were known, by analysis, to be no more defi- 
cient in carbonate of lime and magnesia than the prolific soils of 
the Mississipi Valley." 

"The reason assigned for marling in South Carolina, by Mr. 
Ruffin, viz: that carbonate of lime is thereby afforded to land, 
does not appear to me to be the chief motive the planter has for 
following up this practice. * * '* while the phosphate of 
lime and magnesia is that constituent which, in my opinion, is 
decidedly paramount to all others." 

It would seem that so clear and striking an announcement 
would have proved fruitful in suggestion and that, when 
in spite of the great differences in appearance and other 
physical characteristics between the nodules and the subjacent 
marl, as well as the distinct segregation of the former from the 
latter, Tuomey had been led to the abandonment of his first 
views, and to the conclusion that the nodules were but detached 
and altered fragments of marl, attention would have been closely 
directed to them, and an investigation made to determine more 
accurately the nature of a material that had undergone such 
a notable alteration. 

That such was not the case is made more remarkable by the 
number and character of the investigators. The probable ex- 
planation is found in the general limitations of geological 
surveys. 

In surveys of this character, and where a large amount of 
territory has to be covered, the work involved is invariably 
greater than the means for carrying it on, necessitating economy 
of every kind and in every possible direction. 

The aim of the geologist is to examine and determine, as far 
as is possible, the structural character of the region in which he 
is operating, and it being manifestly impossible for him to 
examine every fragment he meets with, and as the character of 
such fragmentary material is apt to show differences from that 
of the parent bed, having been more or less altered by exposure 
to air and weather, it is the practice to draw all samples from 
the bed proper to insure arriving at the real character of the 
formation in general. 

At the time of these explorations, also, the knowledge of 
phosphatic materials was comparatively recent and extremely 



38 

limited, while its analytical determination, to-day still a matter 
of experienced skill, was then involved in many difficulties. 

In addition, the utilization of amorphous phosphatic rocks in 
Europe was so recent, that it is doubtful whether they had yet 
come to the knowledge of those engaged in work at so distant 
a point as South Carolina. 

These considerations explain and justify the failure to bring 
to light f at that time, the true nature of the phosphatic nodules. 

To show that the course thus taken by events was in no way 
exceptional, two very conspicuous instances of similar occur- 
rences, at a recent date, may prove of interest. 

Shortly before the discovery of the hard rock deposits of 
Florida, an expedition, expressly equipped for the purpose, as- 
cended the Withlacoochee River in search of phosphate rock. 

This river is crossed by several limestone dykes, either only 
slightly below the surface of the water or projecting above it. 
Samples taken from these dykes were carefully tested and the 
absence of the desired material ascertained. 

In every case, or nearly so, there were lying immediately 
alongside the dykes numerous lumps and even boulders of 
phosphate rock of very high grade, but appearing to be merely 
fragments detached from the main mass, no attention was paid 
to them and they escaped testing and discovery. 

Still more conspicuous is the fact that the heavy and exten- 
sive beds of the Tennessee deposits, from a similar cause, en- 
tirely escaped the observation of a systematic geological sur- 
vey, conducted at a much later date, when the character and 
value of such material were well known to all geologists; 
whereas, in Tuomey's day, as has been pointed out, the value of 
amorphous phosphates had been discovered only a couple of 
years, the artificial fertilizer industry was in its early infancy, 
and there was probably no knowledge of these far-reaching 
changes to give an impetus to the search for suitable phosphatic 
material. 

THE DISCOVERY OF THE PHOSPHATES. 

In an address delivered before the Medical Association of 
South Carolina in 1859, Professor Shepard, after describing 
various foreign stone phosphates that he had examined and 
urging a careful investigation of the marl beds, with the view 
of determining which contained the largest amount of phosphate 
of lime, struck a prophetic note when he stated that he sincerely 
entertained "the opinion that, as the supply of guanos from 



39 

abroad fails, We shall be looked to fill the vacuum their dis* 
appearance will occasion ; and it would not be strange if a few 
years hence Charleston, besides supplying her own State, should 
ship more casks of phosphatic stone to the North than she now 
receives of ordinary lime from that region." 




Professor Charles U. Shepard, Sr. 

Though Professor Shepard failed to so specify in his address, 
it seems evident from several considerations that in using the 
term '■ phosphatic stone" he had in mind material other than 
marl rich in phsophoric acid. As stated by himself, in the same 
lecture, he had just been engaged in so careful an investigation 
of several foreign rock phosphates, that he had succeeded in 
identifying two new mineral species, one of which he had found 
to contain 80 per cent, of phosphate of lime. 

To the keenly analytical and acute mind of this distinguished 
mineralogist it must have been evident at a glance that no mere 
phosphatic marl could ever be "exported to the North" in 
competition with phosphates of the sorts that he had recently 
had under examination, or be expected to supply their places. 

Indeed it was just about this time that he pointed out the 
Ashley River marls and rocks as a source of phosphoric acid, in 
connection with what was perhaps the first fertilizer plant estab- 
lished in the State, under the auspices of Col. Lewis M. Hatch, 
of Charleston. 



40 

Colonel Hatch, in a letter to the Rural Caiolinian, (Vol. II, page 
357), gives an extremely interesting account of this enterprise, 
from which the following extracts are taken : 

"In the autumn of 1859 m y brother-in-law, Mr. T. P. Allen, 
proposed that we, together with my son, Melvin P. Hatch, then 
in Europe, should utilize the refuse matter of Charleston for 
fertilizers. I had been selling Columbian guano; and, for secu- 
rity to my customers, had engaged Professor C. U. Shepard to 
examine each cargo as it arrived. We called Professor Shepard 
to our consultation, and determined to prosecute the new work 
with Professor S. as our chemist." 

"We used mainly bones, charcoal, ammoniacal liquors, ashes, 
refuse from soap boilers, burnt rice, sulphuric acid and Peru- 
vian guano, making a fertilizer which we thought worth thirty 
dollars a ton, and sold for that price. It was in every way a 
success. 

"We gathered enough bones to have lasted us perhaps, with 
increased business, another year; but seeing that the supply of 
phosphates would be short from this source, Professor Shepard 
advised that we should look to the Ashley River marl or rocks 
for a supply, saying 'he felt sure that these would prove to be 
richer in phosphates than was usually supposed.' No sooner 
proposed than acted upon. In the spring of i860 we went to 
Major Vardell's place, finding the rock there and elsewhere along 
our route." 

"Subsequently making up my mind that the best place from 
which to obtain supplies was Gen. Brisbane's plantation, now 
the site of the Wando Works, I caused to be gathered there a 
quantity of the rock or nodules, which I sent to Prof. Shepard at 
New Haven. I did this to make sure that the material at this 
place was of such quality as would suit our purposes and make 
the purchase of the land safe. When I met Prof. Shepard, 
in the autumn of i860, he said in reply to my inquiry as to 
quality : 

"' 'I found it richer far than I expected; so rich, that with it 
we can drive all other fertilizers out of the market, and may 
invade foreign markets." 

The samples shipped to New Haven were powdered and ap- 
plied to Professor Shepard's garden, yielding results which 
helped him to form the high estimate of value expressed to Colonel 
Hatch. 



41 

Unfortunately, not having spent the summer in New Haveri, 
and thus being away from his laboratory, he made no analysis 
of the ground nodules. 

Why, in the absence of such an analysis, he was so strongly 
impressed with the idea that their content of phosphate of lime 
was so much higher than usual, is not known, though it is ex- 
tremely probable that it was largely due to physical resemblances 
to some of the foreign phosphates he had examined not long 
before. 

Professor Shepard was a mineralogist of high reputation, and 
possessed to such a remarkable and exceptional degree the power 
of detecting the minute differences in physical characteristics 
that distinguish many minerals, that it seemed rather intuition 
than conscious discrimination, and it is, therefore, very proba- 
ble that the suggestion made above is true. 

Not only to Colonel Hatch did Professor Shepard give the 
advice to seek phosphatic material in the nodules of the Ashley 
beds, as is shown by the following extract from a letter dated 
July ii, 1873, addressed by Geo. T. Jackson, Esq., of Augusta, 
Georgia, to Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr. 

"In i860 your father and myself entered into an agreement 
to manufacture a fertilizer at this place and, under his direc- 
tion, I secured a location and at once proceeded to gather mate- 
rial. I had purchased all the raw bone to be had here and other 
material and had gathered sufficient to make a fair start. 

"The supply of bones, however, we early saw would not be 
sufficient and, in looking about for a substitute, he told me that 
there was a large deposit of marl on the Ashley River which he 
thought would answer our purposes. 

"At my request he sent me some specimens of the identical 
phosphate now being used so advantageously in the manufacture 
of fertilizers. These specimens I retained for two or three 
years. This was in the spring of 1861. Owing to the war our 
operations were suspended and consequently we were not able to 
reap the advantages that I have no doubt we should have." 

The same cause, the outbreak of the war, put a stop to the 
operations of Colonel Hatch, who, believing after the war that 
the people of the South were too poor to buy fertilizers, decided 
to move to North Carolina. 

He concludes the communication quoted from above as fol- 
lows: "After I was committed here, I found to my surprise, on 
a visit to Charleston, that our people were buying fertilizers 
largely from the North. 



42 

"Consulting with Professor Shepard, (unable at the moment 
to take hold myself,) a partnership was formed between Major 
Vardell and Mr. Blake, of New Haven. Mr. B. was to furnish 
capital; and the firm proposed to use a quartz crusher, the in- 
vention of his father, for crushing the material. I sold them 
the materials already gathered, — land, buildings, steam engine, 
etc. Going South to spend a few days at Christmas, Mr. Blake 
was unfortunately drowned ; and with his death that effort ended. 

"During the war I mentioned to Mr. John R. Dukes that 
Professor Shepard had remarked to me, in relation to the Ashley 
River deposits : "That about nine miles from Charleston there 
was a deposit which reminded him very much of the Columbian 
guano," and from this sprung the search for these nodules 
which has resulted, through the agency of Doctors Ravenel and 
Pratt, in this valuable discovery. The truth is, that the first 
step was taken when Mr. Allen proposed to utilize the refuse 
matter of Charleston. 

"Mr. Allen made the germinal suggestion. Professor Shep_ 
ard, as chemist, pointed out the source of needful supply, and 
proved its value. He did this in advance of all others, in ad- 
vance, please bear in mind, of Professor Ansted, whose book 
we did not need, even in 1864, to give us the thought. We 
were convinced in i860, that, with the Ashley River phosphates, 
we could compete with the world in fertilizers. 

"Let us give to Mr. Allen that which is his due, and to Pro- 
fessor Shepard his, — that as a scientific man he pointed out and 
predicted their future use." 

Other parties now entered the field of fertilizer manufacture. 
In November 1866, Doctor St. Julien Ravenel, of Charleston, 
a man of very distinguished scientific attainments and an able 
chemist, associated himself with Messrs. W. C. Dukes & Co. and 
Mr. D. C. Ebaugh, for this purpose. 

The factory established by Colonel Hatch and his associates 
had been located near the forks of the road. The new enterprise 
was started, early in 1867, on Palmetto wharf, on the city water 
front. The factory was provided with "a huge iron crusher which 
breaks the limestone and other hard substances into fragments, 
a pulverizer and a mixer," but, having no acid plant, had to 
bring its sulphuric acid from the north. 

Meeting with the usual experience, a threatened dearth in the 
supply of bones, the company had recourse to Navassa phos- 
phate rock, receiving the first consignment of four hundred 
and fifty-nine tons, on November 10, 1867. This shipment, to- 



43 



gether with some four hundred and fifty tons received thirteen 
days later, was never used, being ultimately shipped to Balti- 
more. 

THE FINAL STEP. 

The end, for which all these incidents had been but a long 
chain of preparation, was now near at hand. 

The opportuness of its advent no man can question, The 
temporary reaction that followed, as is usually the case, the 
close of a devastating and disastrous war was rapidly losing its 
energy, and the outlook, particularly for the neighboring sea- 
coast country, was gloomy in the extreme. 

Made up in large part, as it was, of swampy and undrainedand 
unreclaimed lands, with most of the expensive improvements 
necessarv to its peculiar crops falling to decay or entirely gone, 
its future seemed fraught with disaster and the outcome no man 
could foretell. 




Doctor St. Julien Ravenel. 

Some time in the summer of 1867 Doctor Ravenel's attention 
was directed to the nodular deposits of the vicinity. What 
gave it this direction is not authoritatively known, Doctor Rave- 
nel, so far as the writer has been able to learn, never having 
published any statement of the matter. 

Colonel Hatch thought and said that the information given by 
him to Mr. John R. Dukes during the war, quoted above, was 



44 

the cause of the search. While this is possible, it is extremely 
improbable. Had Doctor Ravenel had any information that 
there was even a remote possibility that he might be able to 
supply the needs of his company with a material so easily ac- 
cessible, it seems hardly probable that he would have agreed, as 
must have been the case, to the purchase of at least so large an 
amount of Navassa rock. What is probably the true version of 
the matter is that given by the writer (anonymous) of an ex- 
tremely valuable article on the subject of phosphates in ''The 
Trade and Commerce of Charleston, "published by the Cham- 
ber of Commerce in 1873. 

The statement therein contained is as follows: 

''During the summer of 1867 Dr. St. Julien Ravenel received 
from Dr. F. M. Geddings specimens of teeth, nodules and marl, 
taken from 'The Elms' plantation, Goose Creek, owned by his 
father, Dr. E. Geddings. While examining these specimens, 
Doctor Ravenel became aware of the true character of the nodules 
and through Mr. Theodore Stoney, made an effort to procure 
them from the banks of the Ashley River." 

Whatever the inciting cause, Doctor Ravenel was soon satis- 
fied by his investigations of the suitability of the nodules for the 
purposes of fertilizer manufacture, and doubtless had in mind 
their utilization in his works, for, in a foot note to the article 
from which the above extract is made, Mr. Stoney is quoted as 
saying: "Early in the summer of 1867, Dr. St. j. Ravenel in 
formed me that he had been examining the nodules from Ashley 
River, and found them so valuable that he wished me to engage 
a competent person to collect and bring them to the city. I 
did engage Capt. Beese, who had run on the river all his life, to 
do so." 

About this time Doctor N. A. Pratt came to Doctor Ravenel 
to confer with him in regard to an enterprise for which he had 
been laying the plans. Doctor Pratt, a native of Georgia, had 
visited Charleston on inspection tours during the war, and while 
there learned of the fact that the marls of the State contained 
from 10 to 15 per cent, of phosphate of lime. Struck by their 
superiority, in this respect, to those of his native state, which 
contain, on an average, some two and a half per cent, of this 
constituent, he secured specimens and forwarded them to his 
laboratory, with the purpose of analyzing them, a purpose how- 
ever, which was never carried into effect. 

Doctor Pratt states that during the war he formed a plan to 
erect chemical works at some point in the South. Being satis- 



45 



fied with the location of Charleston, he settled there after the 
war, and early in 1866 endeavored, without success, to secure 
the necessary capital to erect an acid plant and fertilizer works. 
It is stated, that the object of his conference with Doctor 
Ravenel was to inquire of the latter, with whose high attain- 
ments and great knowledge of local conditions he was well ac- 
quainted, as to tlie feasibility of finding some use for the output 
of his proposed acid plant. 




Doctor N. A. Pratt. 

Doctor Ravenel in reply handed him one of the nodules, in- 
formed him of its value, and, according to one account, without 
mentioning any figures as to content of phosphate of lime, told 
him that the nodules, of which the one he was handing him was 
a sample, would yield a raw material requiring all the acid he 
would be able to make. 

Doctor Pratt's account of this interview differs from the 
above. He stated that he went to Doctor Ravenel's office to 
look at some foreign guanos that had been received by the latter. 
While there, Doctor Ravenel showed him one of the nodules, 
telling him that it contained from 10 to 15 per cent, of phos- 
phate of lime, and gave it to him for examination. 

The two accounts differ materially in important points, but 
the differences were probably due to misconceptions on both 
sides. From the subject of foreign guanos to that of local acid- 



46 

making the transition was natural and short, and the import- 
ance of the latter to the manufacture in which both gentlemen 
were earnestly interested was so great, that it probably became 
the main subject of discussion, and the idea might readily have 
been engendered in the mind of Doctor Ravenel that this had 
been the object of Doctor Pratt's visit. 

On the other hand, when the nodule was handed to Doctor 
Pratt there was doubtless some discussion of its occurrence in 
connection with the adjoining marl, and some remark made by 
Doctor Ravenel as to the phosphoric acid content of the latter 
might readily have been misunderstood by Doctor Pratt as hav- 
ing reference to the nodule, which was the immediate object of 
discussion. That this, or something similar, was probably the 
state of the case, is made almost certain by the consideration 
that Doctor Ravenel could scarcely have been ignorant of the 
value of the nodules. He had been long and prominently en- 
gaged in the scientific life of the neighborhood, had been 
familiar with the men who had studied and knew the facts con- 
nected with the subject, and in so small a circle could not pos- 
sibly have escaped becoming more or less familiar therewith. 
Whether or not he had ever heard of Professor Shepard's esti- 
mate of the value of the nodules, the ones in question had been 
handed him for examination, and the mere fact that he selected 
one of them for Doctor Pratt is proof presumptive that he had 
some special reason for the segregation, especially when the 
insignificance of the phosphate stratum, as compared with the 
marl bed, is remembered. To the writer it seems certain, 
that Doctor Ravenel did not become acquainted with the 
value of the nodule until after the purchase of Navassa rock, 
alluded to above, had been made. It is impossible to believe 
that, if he had had even a remote idea of the possible availability 
of a material, the truth as to whose value it would be so easy 
to ascertain, he would have allowed his company to make the 
expensive purchase in question. It seems further certain that, 
subsequent to the Navassa purchase, he analyzed the nodules 
which had been placed in his hands and ascertained that they 
contained an amount of phosphate beyond that shown by any 
analysis previously made, and there can be no doubt that, such 
being the case, he was fairly entitled to the credit of an inde- 
pendent discovery of the value of the nodules. 

The following letter, received since the preceding paragraphs 
were put in type, is of great interest, and strongly confirmatory 
of the views that have been set forth above. 



47 

Summerville, S. C, November 5, 1903. 

My Dear Mr. Chazal: In connection with our recent conver- 
sation on the subject, I would state that I recall a visit paid my 
father by Dr. St. Julien Ravenel at the chemical laboratory 
of the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, in the 
winter of 1867-68, at which Dr. Ravenel imparted to him the 
results of his investigations as to the occurrence and value of 
the South Carolina phosphatic deposits, more particularly the 
nodular beds on the Ashley. 

My father at that time expressed his surprise and gratification 
that some had been found which contained over sixty per cent, 
of bone phosphate of lime, whereas his own previous examina- 
tions had indicated less than fifty per cent., i. e., in the 
"forties." 

I have every reason to believe that the conversation referred 
to was the first intimation that my father received of the re- 
newal of the attention being paid to the local phosphatic beds, 
so happily inaugurated by Dr. Ravenel, and so diligently 
prosecuted by him and others. 

Yours very truly, 

CHARLES U. SHEPARD. 

INAUGURATION OF THE PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY. 

In any event, Doctor Pratt, on receiving the nodule from 
Doctor Ravenel, entered upon its analysis and found it to con- 
tain 34.40 per cent of phosphate of lime. 

Appreciating at once the great interests at stake, he hastened 
to consult Professor Francis S. Holmes as to the occurrence of 
the nodular strata and the possible supply of nodules. To Pro- 
fessor Holmes they were old friends. He had made the pursuit 
of science, for the love thereof, his life work, had studied dili- 
gently the geological history and conditions of the low-country 
of South Carolina, had been intimately associated with Tuomey, 
with whom he had collaborated in valuable treatises on the 
Pleiocene and Post-Pleiocene fossils of the State, and in his ex- 
tended investigations had acquired a thorough knowledge of 
the country immediately around Chaileston. 

Professor Holmes showed Doctor Pratt a large collection of 
the nodules and gave him some specimens, two of which yielded, 
on analysis, 55.92 per cent, and 55.52 per cent, bone phosphate 
of lime. Samples obtained by Doctor Pratt himself on his visits 
to the deposits, made in company with Professor Holmes, gave 
results varying from 57 to 6y per cent, of bone phosphate. 



48 



Doctor Pratt appreciated fully the importance of the infor- 
mation afforded by these analyses and by what he had learned 
from Professor Holmes as to the occurrence and quantity of tl;e 
nodules. In company with the latter, he made an effort to secure 
in Charleston the funds necessary for a proper development of 
the enterprise. Failing to do this, they proceeded to Philadel- 
phia, where their efforts were effective and resulted in the 
formation of the Charleston, S. C, Mining and Manufacturing 
Company, which was formally organized at Charleston on No- 
vember 29, 1867, with a paid up capital of one million dollars, 
Professor Holmes being elected president, and Doctor Pratt, 
chemist and superintendent. 




Professor Francis S. Holmes. 

The new company speedily secured for itself a large area of 
phosphate lands on both sides of the Ashley River, about Bee's 
Ferry and Ten Mile Hill. 

The intimate knowledge of local geological conditions pos- 
sessed by Professor Holmes was of infinite value in this work, 
and the territorv secured at that time, together with other lands 
purchased at a later period, formed a phosphate property which 
could not be duplicated, which was extremely valuable on account 
of the quantity and quality of the deposit, and which was in im- 
mediate proximity to navigation. 

In the meanwhile, Doctor Ravenel and his associates, organ- 
ized as the Wando Fertilizer Company and acting indepen- 



49 

dently and, it is said, without any knowledge of the efforts 
being made in Philadelphia, proceeded to gather a supply of the 
nodules from their Bee's Ferry property and utilized them in 
their fertilizer manufacture during the following winter, ship- 
ping their Navassa rock , as has already been stated, to Balti- 
more. 

Relying entirely, as they did, on local capital, their efforts 
were very much restricted; they were prevented from making 
any attempts to secure a large acreage of phosphate property, 
and looked mainly to securing a supply for their own use, as 
manufacturers. 

The formation of these two companies not only marked the 
inauguration of the new industry in both its branches, mining 
and manufacturing, but it was also the last step in the work 
begun long since, even though unconsciously, by Ruffin and 
Tuomey, and carried along, added to and completed by their 
successors. 

Delayed in its first stages by the slow spread of knowledge 
of the new ideas in manuring, it had met, when apparently on 
the verge of completion, with a serious check, in the breaking 
out of the civil war, a war so all-absorbing and, in Charleston 
at least, so ruinous in its consequences of destruction of prop- 
erty and paralysis of trade and activities, that the only matter 
for surprise is that the end was arrived at so soon. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEPOSITS. 

On December 4, 1867, Messrs. Dukes & Co., the agents of the 
Wando Company, shipped the first small sample lot of rock to 
George E. White, of New York; on the 16th of the same month 
the Charleston Mining Company made its first shipment, also a 
sample lot of sixteen tierces, by the steamer Falcon, to Balti- 
more, whence it was forwarded to Philadelphia, where a part 
of it was made into super-phosphate by Messrs. Potts & Klett. 

The first cargo, of 100 tons, was shipped by the schooner Ren- 
shaw to Baltimore, on April 14, 1868, by the Wando Company. 
Eight days later, on April 22, the schooners T. G. Smith and 
Anna Barton sailed for Philadelphia, carrying the first cargoes 
of the Charleston Mining Company, of 296 and 329 tons res- 
pectively, loaded at Lamb's. 

So far, no mechanical washers had been devised or erected, 
and the only cleansing received by the rock comprising these 
two shipments was such as could be given by a rough scrubbing 



50 

with hand brushes in a convenient creek. It is not surprising, 
then, to learn that the cargoes were so dirty that they had 
practically to be mined out of the vessels. 

The price fixed in this first contract was fourteen dollars per 
ton, netting about ten dollars per ton, f. o. b. In spite, how- 
ever, of the small preparation given to the xock, this price was 
not found remunerative and the contract was cancelled. 

The cause of this lay chiefly in the way the rock was mined, 
consisting, as it did, in digging a series of separate small pits, 
the labor being greatly increased, the yield small, and the 
output per acre greatly reduced by the amount of ground 
left undug. On these very properties of the Charleston Mining 
Company, some of the fields that had been pitted in this way 
were afterwards mined systematically, and as much rock taken 
from them as had been obtained at the first digging. 

These were, of course, the usual troubles of a new mining in- 
dustry, and were soon overcome. 

The first washer built by the Charleston Mining Company, 
the Washer No. I, was given practically no elevation above the 
ground, and all the material had to be rolled up on the rock- 
piles in barrows. The costliness of this handling was soon real- 
ized, and the No. 2 Washer, erected in 1869, was considerably 
elevated. During the year 1868 the shipments of this company 
amounted to 4,403 tons, all of which went to Philadelphia. 
Until the latter part of 1879 a ^ °f their rock was shipped in a 
washed, undried condition. After that time, however, a por- 
tion of the product was dried in bins with hot air, until 1882, 
when the bins were abandoned and the present system of kiln 
burning over wood was adopted. 

FAVORABLE RECEPTION OF THE NEW ROCK. 

The new material caused great excitement in the fertilizer 
world. A part of the first sample shipment to Philadelphia was 
forwarded to Messrs. Coates & Co., of London, and distributed 
by them for examination and, in a letter from them, it was stated, 
that "it had been analyzed by distinguished chemists of Eng- 
land, France, Prussia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzer- 
land, and a high opinion of its value held by them." 

Unfortunately for the land phosphate industry, more or less 
negligence in preparation and carelessness in shipment were the 
rule for several years, whereas the opposite was the case with its 
river rival. 



51 

The latter rock, too, generally contained, naturally, a smaller 
amount of oxide of iron and alumina, the difference between the 
two classes of rock in this respect, however, being greatly in- 
creased by the respective methods of preparation. 

The amount of these two constituents in a rock having a potent 
influence on the solubility in water of the super-phosphate pro- 
duced from it, this point was one of great importance in countries, 
like England, where no value was assigned to any other form of 
phosphoric acid than the water soluble. 

These points produced a strong prejudice against the land rock, 
which prevailed for many years, during which it was practically 
excluded from the European market and its activities limited 
to the domestic field. 

THE RIVER DEPOSITS. 

On March i, 1870, the General Assembly of the State, by a 
vote of more than three to one, passed over the veto of Governor 
R. K. Scott, the act giving the Marine and River Phosphate 
Mining and Manufacturing Company "the right to dig, mine and 
remove for the full term of twenty-one years, from the beds of 
the navigable streams and waters within the jurisdiction of the 
State, the phosphate rocks and the phosphatic deposits," subject 
of course, to riparian rights and freedom of navigation. 

The terms of the Act were extremely liberal, the only require- 
ments by the State being that the company should file a bond 
of $50,000, to secure the making of true returns of the 
amount of rock mined, and pay a royalty of one dollar per ton. 
No conditions were imposed in reference to a thorough and sys- 
tematic mining of the deposits, and apparently the only changes 
made by the General Assembly in the bill presented to it was 
the striking out of the word ''exclusive", in describing the charac- 
ter of the rights granted. 

The absence of knowledge as to the extent and character of 
the deposits, and the varying conditions of quantity, quality and 
accessibility prevalent therein, would, it is true, have made a 
rational handling of the question one of great difficulty even 
for an honest and intelligent body. The General Assembly that 
had the settlement of the matter possessed neither of these 
qualifications, but was distinctly and notoriously ignorant and 
purchasable, a large number of its members being unable to read 
or write. 

Governor Scott's veto, ostensibly at any rate, was largely based 
on the idea that the corporators, for the most part owners of 



52 

land deposits, would fail to operate the river territory to any ex- 
tent, if at all, to prevent competition with their land mines. 

He professed to fear that, although the word "exclusive" 
had been stricken out in the Senate, such rights had been given, 
either really or practically, and that private citizens would be 
deprived of the privilege of mining. 

Supposing the deposits to be of practically unlimited extent, 
their proper utilization and development, if the question ever 
suggested itself to him, doubtless seemed a matter of compara- 
tively small moment. 

Experience has demonstrated that the true policy of the State, 
at that time, was to have had the territory properly examined 
and subdivided, and to have sold exclusive rights to mine in the 
various subdivisions to responsible individuals or companies, the 
mining to be subject to the supervision of the authorities and 
royalty to be paid on the output. 

This, or some similar course, would have prevented the dete- 
rioration and partial ruin of some of the deposits that followed, 
in consequence of the mining of only the more easily accessible 
portions of the beds. 

The State, however, failed to see the wisdom of this course, 
and for the most part, then and afterward, acted on the fallacious 
idea that, instead of being the property of the people of the State 
as a whole and as such to be worked in the way to obtain the 
largest returns, the phosphate beds were the property of the peo- 
ple as individuals, to be a source of profit to them as such, 
this being, of course, particularly applicable to the residents 
in the vicinity of the beds. 

The only special right the latter should have enjoyed was the 
opportunity of employment afforded them by the development 
of the new industry, but the exploitation of the general rights 
system offered too fertile a field to political demagogues to be 
overlooked, especially when the other citizens of the State fail- 
ed to realize the state of affairs and to take steps to preserve 
their rights, which were thus trespassed upon. It is true that 
no good could have been accomplished in this respect 
during the existence of the carpet-bag regime, but even after its 
overthrow in 1876, when the exclusive rights system was recom- 
mended by Attorney General Conner and afterward by Special 
Assistant E. L. Roche, no change was made and the old system 
was adhered to. 

Fortunately for the interests of the State, the profitable hand- 
ling of the river beds to any extent demanded the installation of 



53 

large and expensive plants for the excavation and treatment of 
the rock, and the large investments required necessitated more 
or less thorough exploitation. 

THE MARINE AND RIVER MINING COMPANY. 

This company, organized March 15, 1870, with a capital of 
$500,000, half of which was paid in, commenced operations the 
following June, and raised and shipped about 3,000 tons by the 
end of the same year. 

In the meanwhile, Professor Charles U. Shepard, Jr. had been 
employed by the company to examine the river territory, with 
the exception of Coosaw River and North Wimbee Creek, and 
as the result of his investigations reported that, although there 
were large beds of rock in Stono and other rivers, their charac- 
ter was such as to require great care and prudence in mining to 
make the new enterprise profitable, and that he did not consider 
the outlook for large returns as favorable. 

Prior to this, the Marine and River Company, which in spite 
of the excision of the word ''exclusive" from its act of incorpora- 
tion, claimed to have received exclusive rights to mine in all the 
navigable waters of the State, had transferred these rights in 
Coosaw River to the Coosaw Mining Company, and in North and 
South Wimbee creeks to the South Carolina Phosphate Company 
(Limited), generally known as the Oak Point Mines Company. 

The General Assembly, however, disregarding the claims of 
the Marine and River Company, proceeded to grant other licenses 
to mine, the result of which was a suit brought in the United 
States Circuit Court, in 1874, by William L. Bradley, of Massa- 
chusetts, a large stockholder in the Marine and River Company, 
against the South Carolina Phosphate and Phosphatic River 
Mining Company, in which the Court decided that no exclusive 
grant had been made to the Marine and River Company. No 
appeal was made from this decision, which was thus, apparently, 
accepted. 

THE COOSAW MINING COMPANY. 

The Coosaw Mining Company commenced operations in Nov- 
ember, 1870, locating its works on Chisolm's Island, on Coosaw 
River. The royalty due by it on the rock mined was paid, at 
first, through the Marine and River Company, but later on, 
in 1878, it was paid directly to the State, the Company having 
filed a bond for $50,000. 



54 

The decision of the United States Court in the Bradley case, 
referred to above, necessarily involved the validity of the rights 
that the Coosaw Company was exercising under its grant from 
the Marine and River Company, but in 1876 an act was passed, 
nominally to settle the periods at which returns should be made 
and royalty paid, by which, however, "its right to dig and mine 
in the navigable waters of the State" was recognized, and it was 
granted "the exclusive right to occupy, dig, mine and remove 
phosphate rock and phosphatic deposits from all that part of 
Coosaw River lying opposite to and south of Chisolm's Island, 
whereon their works are located, and to the marshes thereof." 

THE OAK POINT MINES COMPANY. 

The Oak Point MinesCompany,an English corporation organized 
in 1870, and which had purchased a body of land deposits on 
North and South Wimbee creeks, known asKean's Neck, engag- 
ed in both land and river mining. 

It received, as has been mentioned, a grant from the Marine 
and River Company to mine in the neighboring streams, but 
having raised the claim that North Wimbee Creek was not a 
navigable stream, that, therefore, the riparian rights of the com- 
pany extended to the middle of the stream and that the rock 
mined therefrom was not subject to royalty, and no rovalty 
having been paid in 1873 and 1874, the question was carried into 
the courts by the State and a decision obtained adverse to the 
claims of the company. 

The Act of 1876, by which the Coosaw Company had benefited, 
conferred on all other companies and persons then engaged in 
mining under authority from the State exclusive rights to the 
territory in which their operations had been carried on previous 
to the passage of the Act, ten days after that date being allowed 
for the acceptance of the terms offered. 

The Oak Point Mines Company at once accepted the terms of 
the Act and claimed the exclusive rights granted thereby. 

The Act of 1876 was the nearest approach made by the State 
to a proper subdivision of its territory, but having been too long 
postponed and the general rights system being retained practi- 
cally in all the streams save those occupied by the Coosaw and 
Oak Point companies, the plan was exceedingly defective and to 
that extent failed to subserve the interests of the State. 

THE PROGRESS OF THE RIVER INDUSTRY. 
The Marine and River Company, after enduring many vicissi- 
tudes and reorganizations, ceased operations in 1882. It had 



55 

never been profitable to its stockholders and the efforts made 
under its last reorganization were fraught with disaster to many. 

The Coosaw Company, in the meanwhile, after an initial period 
of disappointment and threatened disaster had been reorgan- 
ized and, by extremely skilful management, had so successfully 
utilized the magnificent deposits embraced in its grant as to 
have proven a bonanza to its stockholders as well as to the State. 

Of the 3,123,550 tons of rock that had been shipped by the 
river companies up to the end of 1894 the Coosaw Company had 
produced about 1,500,000 tons, or nearly one-half. 

The following table, giving the production of river rock by 
years, shows more clearly and concisely than would be possible 
in words the rapid growth of the river industry from its inception 
in 1870 to its culmination in 1893 and 1894, after which time the 
results of the almost criminally senseless policy of the State to- 
wards the Coosaw Company, with the attendant litigation and 
the disastrous effects of the cyclone of 1893, became fully opera- 
tive, and brought about the rapid decline and practical ruin of 
this branch of the industry. 

TABLE OF SHIPMENTS OF RIVER ROCK FROM 
1870 to 1894. 

(Years ending September 1.) 

Tons. 

1 870 1 ,989 

1871 17,655 

1872 22,502 

1873 45,777 

1874 •'" 57,7i6 

1875 67,969 

1876 ' 81,912 

1 877 1 26, 560, 

1878 97, 700 

1879 98,586 

1880 65,163 

1881 124,541 

1882 140,773 

1883 129,318 

1884 151,243 

1885 171,671 

1886 191,174 

1887 202,757 

1888 190,274 



56 

1889 212,102 

1890 237,15° 

1891 169,293 

1892 156,095 

i893 249,339 

1894 1 14,282 

Total 3,123,550 

In the meanwhile, besides the four companies mentioned 
above, other companies and individuals had been attracted by 
the opportunities offered by river mining. It is impracticable in 
this sketch to do more than mention the companies of a more 
or less permanent character. 

Some of the individual miners received licenses from the State 
and paid their own royalties. Most of them, however, including 
all the small operators, worked under permits from the licensed 
companies, their production being sold to these companies, and 
the royalty thereon paid by them. 

Amongst the companies may be mentioned, (with their fields 
of operation), the following: 

Palmetto Phosphate Company- — Ashley and Wando rivers. 

Farmer's Phosphate Company — Bull and Coosaw rivers. 

Sea Island Chemical Company — Johnson and Beaufort rivers. 

Carolina Mining Company — Broad, Johnson, Morgan, Bull and 
Coosaw rivers. 

Beaufort Phosphate Company — Beaufort and Coosaw rivers. 

In 1890 the Coosaw, Sea Island and Oak Point Mines com- 
panies were consolidated under the name of the Coosaw Com- 
pany, the object being partly a reduction of general expenses, 
but more especially a termination of the excessive competition 
which had brought great loss to all and was threatening to neces- 
sitate an early shut-down. 

THE COOSAW LITIGATION. 

Reference has been made to the litigation between the State 
and the Coosaw Company. 

The original grant of twenty-one years, received by this com- 
pany from the Marine and I^iver Company, was to expire in 1891. 
The company claimed that the Act of 1876 had removed this 
limitation and given it a practically perpetual charter, con- 
ditioned only on the prompt payment of the royalty of one 
dollar per ton, a condition which it had always fulfilled promptly. 

The question had been carefully investigated by Attorney 



57 

General Conner in 1877, and in an extremely interesting and 
valuable report on the subject he gave the opinion that the claim 
to perpetual rights was baseless. 

On the expiration of the original grant, in 1891, the State 
carried the matter into the Courts and, after prolonged litigation, 
gained its cause and threw the territory open to the general 
rights miners. 

While, under the decisions of the Courts, the State was en- 
tirely within its rights in pursuing this course, the folly of the 
step is and was equally clear, that is, so far as her true interests 
were concerned. 

The causes of the action thus taken are not far to seek. The 
Coosaw Company after its first reorganization, as has been said, 
had developed a comprehensive and efficient system of mining 
and preparation by means of an expensive plant and a thoroughly 
ordered force of employees, whom it had made devoted to its 
interests. 

It had been compelled to start practically ab initio, devising 
costly machinery, experimenting with it and adapting it to 
the service required. It had mined its territory systematically 
and, expecting to retain permanent control thereof, had worked 
it so as to economize the deposits and thus increase the revenue 
to be derived by the State. 

The company had, it is true, received very large returns on its 
investment, but, as has already been stated, it had at the same 
time paid the State in royalties as much as the latter had received 
from all other operators combined. In a word, the history of 
the company had been an ample justification of the privileges it 
had enjoyed, and a striking testimony to the superiority of the 
exclusive rights system over the general rights system in force 
elsewhere. 

The impression, produced by the great financial success of the 
company, that the deposits in Coosaw River had been originally 
almost unlimited, and that there was consequently a large supply 
remaining therein, together with the gradual exhaustion of the 
open territory, had led the outside miners to look with longing 
eyes on the forbidden land. 

The assurances of the Coosaw Company to the contrary were 
considered false. Its statements, that the bulk of the better de- 
posits had been exhausted, that though there was still remain- 
ing a considerable body of rock, it was of poorer quality and 
much of it contaminated with marl, that what was left of the 
good rock was in more or less isolated and small beds, in a word, 



58 

that at no time in its history had there been more need of the 
systematic efforts of a single operator, were all held to be only 
desperate attempts»to retain, by plausible and baseless arguments, 
a rich and desirable monopoly, and were disregarded. 

The opinions of men of high character, who could have con- 
firmed the statements of the Coosaw Company, were not desired. 
Indeed a letter of this character written by one of the leading 
expert authorities of the State to the Governor was pigeon-holed 
by him and saw the light some time afterwards only by publica- 
tion by the friends of the company. 

Disregarded, also, were the recent discoveries of phosphates 
of various grades in Florida, in supposedly unlimited quantities 
and producible at a minimum of cost. 

That the danger threatened thereby to the phosphate industry 
of South Carolina seemed so great, that it had been deemed 
advisable to send the Special Phosphate Assistant to visit the 
new discoveries, and that his report had shown that there was 
serious cause for alarm, were matters of no consequence. 

The influences at work, together with the political necessities 
of unscrupulous demagogism, were too strong and prevailed over 
the interests of the State. 

The General Assembly of 1890 passed an act creating a board 
of phosphate commissioners, who were directed, on the expira- 
tion of the original Coosaw grant, March 1, 1891, to take charge 
of the company's territory, to issue licenses to mine therein, 
and to enjoin all parties interfering with them or attempting to 
mine without their license. 

The Act further provided that rock mined by such parties 
should be considered the property of the State and suits entered 
into to recover it; that all boats, vessels, dredges or other appli- 
ances used in such mining should be confiscated, that the officers 
of such companies should be subject to fine and imprisonment, 
and that the State should not be required to give bond in any 
such case it might be compelled to bring. 

On March 1, 1891, the Coosaw Company, in view of the drastic 
nature of the penalties imposed by the Act, and unable to apply 
for a license, as such action would have been a virtual surrender 
of the perpetual rights it claimed to possess, suspended its opera- 
tions. 

A proposition made by the company to continue work, under 
the direction of the Board of Commissioners, until the matter 
should be decided in the Courts, without prejudice to the rights 



59 

of either party, was rejected by the State, without any regard to 
the necessary consequences of such rejection. 

The works of the company were at once closed down and re- 
mained so until April of the following year. 

The Carolina Mining Company and the Farmers' Mining Com- 
pany received licenses from the board and entered the territory, 
but were at once served with injunctions obtained from the 
United States Court by the Coosaw Company and compelled to 
suspend operations. 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE LITIGATION. 

The loss of royalty to the State was very great, the damage to 
the company even greater. In addition to the loss of its earn- 
ings, it had to sustain the heavy expense of maintaining a large 
amount of valuable property subject to rapid deterioration when 
not in use. 

Burdensome as these things were, they were as nothing com- 
pared with the loss of market that followed the suspension. The 
Florida river pebble deposits had been in operation for some 
years before the discovery of the hard rock and land pebble 
phosphates of that state. The grade of this Peace River pebble 
was a little higher than that of the Carolina river rock, of which 
it was a serious competitor. 

Up to the time in question the high reputation that the latter 
rock had earned in Europe, together with some slight advantages 
in shipping, had enabled it to retain the field, and the Florida 
rock had not been able to make any serious inroads upon it. 

The stoppage of the Carolina supply, of which the Coosaw 
Company had been the main producer, forced European con- 
sumers to supply their wants with the Florida product, and their 
experience therewith was so satisfactory that the preference 
which the Carolina rock had enjoyed was forever lost. The 
higher grade of the Florida rock, its cheaper cost of production 
and heavy output were sufficient to retain the foothold that had 
been gained, and the ground lost by the Carolina industry was 
never recovered. ? 

The Coosaw Company resumed operations in April 1862, mining 
for a time in Mud Creek, a non-navigable stream, under an 
arrangement with the owners thereof. No royalty, of course, 
accrued to the State on this rock. 

Later, the company accepted the situation and, with the other 
companies which had taken out licenses to mine therein, again 
entered its former territory and began an energetic struggle to re- 
gain a part, at least, of the lost trade. 



60 

Its efforts in this regard were paralyzed by the disastrous 
effects of the cyclone of August 31, 180,3, which practically 
destroyed the plants of all the companies, and compelled them 
to apply to the Board of Phosphate Commissioners for relief, in 
the shape of a reduction of the royalty to fifty cents per ton ; 
and they agreed that if this reduction were granted, they would 
rebuild their plants and renew their operations. 

The petition, refused by the Board, was granted by the Legis- 
lature in December of the same year, and work was again started 
on January I, 1894. The royalty was fixed at a minimum of 
50 cents per ton, with a rising scale based on increased prices. 

The consequences of the four months' delay, however, had 
been very serious. Uncertain as to the action of the Legislature, 
they had not only lost the four months' work, but had been un- 
able to make contracts for future deliveries, and so what little 
ground had been regained was again in control of their com- 
petitors. 

The consequence of this condition of things was such a great 
reduction in prices that, in 1895, the State Phosphate Inspector 
stated in his annual report that the companies were selling at 
a loss, and recommended a further reduction of royalty to twenty- 
five cents. The recommendation was disregarded. 

The Carolina Mining Company was forced to the wall, and its 
property was sold piecemeal and scattered. 

In 1896 additional competition from Tennessee and Algiers 
forced the companies to make another appeal to the Board of 
Commissioners. The Board, after obtaining the necessary au- 
thority from the Legislature, made the reduction asked for, but 
nullified its action by refusing to apply the reduction to the 
large stocks of rock on hand, in spite of notice from the Coosaw 
Company, which was the largest holder of such rock, that such 
refusal would necessitate a cessation of their operations, which 
followed in May, 1897. 

In February 1898. the works were again started up and kept 
in operation until March 1902, when the struggle against the 
adverse conditions prevailing was decided to be hopeless, and 
the plant was closed down, dismantled and sold. 

It is difficult to consider with patience the senseless folly of 
the course that precipitated this final outcome. Granted that 
the same result would have followed in time, in the natural 
course of events, still the end would have been materially de- 
layed by a different course of action, and the financial results to 
the State have been materially larger. For, it must be remem- 



61 

bered, the whole Coosaw claim rested, admittedly, on the pay- 
ment of the dollar royalty, and had it been allowed to continue 
undisturbed, the company would have been compelled to strain 
every nerve to meet this payment, with, of course, a much larger 
return to the State. 

The Farmer's Mining Company, in 1897, became involved in 
the failure of other parties, and was ultimately sold to the Cen- 
tral Phosphate Company, which is still operating it, and which 
since the comparatively recent destruction by fire of the dredge 
of the Beaufort Phosphate Company, is the solitary surviving 
important operator in this once busy territory. 

Since the first appearance of this article the Central Phos- 
phate Company has discontinued operations. It recently made 
an ofter to the State authorities to exploit some of the marsh 
deposits adjoining Coosaw River, conditioned on a reduction of 
the royalty. The reduction having been refused, no further 
steps, as far as can be learned, have been taken in the matter. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAND INDUSTRY. 

The development of the land companies was rapid and im- 
portant from the beginning of the industry, but being all prac- 
tically private enterprises, they were less in the public eye, and 
offer less material for description. 

The great importance of the Charleston Mining Company has 
already been alluded to. especially the success that had attended 
its efforts to gather a large and compact body of rich and shallow 
phosphate lands. The enterprise speedily became profitable and 
remained so until a change of management in 1891 or 1892 
brought about a new state of affairs. 

The new management was, unfortunately for the company, 
composed of men ignorant of the phosphate business, and who, 
while thus unhampered by the prejudices of experience, were 
equally unfamiliar with its lessons and results. 

Carried away by wild opinions as to the dangers threatened 
to the value of their property — though of its real value, indeed, 
they could have had but a very hazy idea— by the recent Florida 
developments, and disregarding the advice of the experienced 
and skillful management which had been in successful conduct 
of the business of the company for so many years, they thought 
they had found a panacea for their anticipated troubles in a 
cheapening of the cost of production by the abandonment of 
their old plant at Lamb's, and the erection of a new, larger and 
more costly one on the Fetteressa plantation at Bee's Ferry. 



62 

Needless to relate, the conditions neither required nor justified 
this step, the most prominent result of which was the conversion 
of a large surplus into a bonded debt of the same amount, and 
only the great intrinsic value of the property prevented disaster 
in the more or less critical years that followed. 

Ultimately, in igoi, it was sold to the Virginia-Carolina 
Chemical Company, which is now operating it. A strong com- 
mentary on the action of the former management is furnished 
by the fact that the present owners have found it advisable, the 
Fetteressa plant being in need of heavy repairs, to dismantle it 
and return to the former location, where they have just com- 
pleted the erection of the largest phosphate plant in the world, 
the capacity of its washers being 1,200 tons per day. 

Of the numerous land mines which have been operated at 
various times it is only practicable to give here a list of some of 
the more prominent. Amongst these have been the following: 

Pacific Guano Company, Chisolm's Island. 

Oak Point Mines Company, Kean's Neck. 

Horse Shoe Mines, Ashepoo region. 

Pon-Pon Mines, Edisto region. 

Bulow Mines, near Stono River. 

St. Andrew's Mines, near Stono River. 

Bolton Mines, on Stono River. 

Cherokee Mines, Ashley River. 

Pinckney Mines, Ashley River. 

Drayton Mines, Ashley River. 

Pinckney Mines, Ashley River. 

Gregg Mines, Ashley River. 

Millbrook Mines, Ashley River. 

Mount Holly Mines, Mount Holly. 

Of these the Bulow and Pinckney properties are the only two 
that are being operated as entirely independent concerns. 

The Bolton Mine, while operated by its owners or lessees, sells 
its whole output to the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company. 

The other mines have for the most part been purchased by the 
same company, the few exceptions having been either exhausted 
or shut down. 

THE FERTILIZER COMPANIES. 

The Wando Fertilizer Company, as has been stated, proceeded 
at once to utilize the new material in its manufacture. 

It was not long left in sole possession of the field. On May 
26, 1868, a charter was applied for in the name of "The 



63 

Sulphuric Acid and Superphosphate Company," the distinctive 
purpose of which was to make the sulphuric acid to be used 
in the manufacture of superphosphates. 

On its acid chamber, the first to be erected south of Baltimore, 
work was begun August 21, 1868. The location selected for the 
work was on Town Creek, near the Cooper River, on the spot 
where the John Adams, the first frigate of the United States 
navy, was built, and which was subsequently the site of the 
Confederate navy ship yard. Here on December 8, 1868, the 
first sulphuric acid produced in Charleston was made. A second 
set of chambers was soon added, the two sets having a capacity 
of 180,000 cubic feet, and consuming 7,200 pounds of sulphur per 
twenty-four hours. One of the chambers of the second set was 
140 by 30 by 25 feet, and at the time was the largest single cham- 
ber in the United States. 

This plant was known as the "Etiwan Works," a name which 
was subsequently assumed by the company, which was capitalized 
at $350,000. 

The Trade Review of Charleston, (published in 1873, by the 
Chamber of Commerce), shows that at that time the number of 
factories had been increased to six, namely: 

Wando Company. 

Sulphuric Acid and Superphosphate Company. 

Pacific Guano Company. 

Stono Company. 

Wappoo Mills (J. B. Sardy's). 

Atlantic Company. 

The Wando Company, formed in June, 1867, had begun work, 
it will be remembered, in November of the same year, its factory 
being located in the city, and its sulphuric acid supply imported 
from the North. The city plant proving insufficient, a new 
factory and acid chamber were erected at the mines, convenient 
to the rock supply. The works were subsequently removed to a 
site on the Ashley River about five miles from the city. The 
capital stock of the company was $300,000. The works ultimately 
passed into the hands of the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Com- 
pany. 

The Sulphuric Acid and Superphosphate Company has already 
been described. 

The Pacific Guano Company started operations in September, 
1869. It operated its own mines, on Chisolm's Island, for many 
years, and in the Edisto region, not far from Jacksonboro, for a 
comparatively short time. Its fertilizer and acid plant were 



64 

located near the city, just above the forks of the road. Its 
capital stock was $1,000,000. It had a successful and eventful 
career, being finally involved in the failure of the' Boston com- 
pany, of which it was an offshoot. 

The Atlantic Company, located on Ashley River, was started 
in December 1870, with $200,000 capital. It proved one of the 
most successful of the companies, and was ultimately sold to 
the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company. 

The Stono Company, also on Ashley River, had a capital stock 
of $160,000. and commenced operations in December, 1870. 
Though not so largely developed, ultimately, as the Atlantic 
works, its career was very similar to that of the latter company 
and its ending was the same. 

J. B. Sardy mined in the Ashepoo region. His factory, 
Wappoo Mills, was located on Ashley River and Wappoo Cut, 
opposite Charleston. It afterward passed into the hands of 
Capt. C. C. Pinckney, who operated it for many years as an acid 
phosphate mill, the only one ever operated strictly as such in 
the State. It is now the property of the Virginia- Carolina 
Company. 

An idea of the early activity of these works is given by the fact 
that up to July 1, 1872, their acid plants had produced 10,614 
tons of sulphuric acid, valued at over $350,000. They had 
consumed 36,610 tons of rock and shipped 87,406 tons of fertilizer. 

The figures for the amounts of acid produced and rocks con- 
sumed are interesting as showing the rather chary use of acid at 
the time, less than one-third of the amount now generally employ- 
ed. 

ANALYSES OF EARLY PRODUCTS. 

The following analyses, made during the years 1869-71, are 
of interest, as showing the quality of the goods manufactured at 
that time. 

It must be remembered, in this connection, that for the first 
two or three years no value was placed on reverted phosphoric 
acid, and it was not determined. 

ANALYSIS OF FERTILIZER. 
(Average of 7 Analyses.) 

Soluble phosphoric acid 3-5^ 

Insoluble phosphoric acid. 10.17 

Total phosphoric acid 1 3-73 

Ammonia, , , , . . . . f r 2.45 





Philip E. Chazal, E. M. 



65 

In the seven analyses averaged above, the soluble phosphoric 
acid varied from 2.19 per cent, to 4.44 per cent. In four of the 
samples moisture was determined, the average being 20.19 P er 
cent., and the range from 18.28 per cent, to 21.80 per cent. 

FERTILIZERS MADE IN 1871. 

I. II. III. 

p. c. p. c. p. c. 

Phosphoric acid, soluble 4.12 5.70 2.94 

Phosphoric acid, reverted 2.60 2.47 1.76 

Phosphoric acid, available 6.72 8.17 4.70 

Phosphoric acid, insoluble 6.55 6.09 9.24 

Phosphoric acid, total 13.27 14.26 13.94 

Ammonia 3.09 326 2.22 

ACID PHOSPHATE WITH POTASH (1871). 

p. c; 

Phosphoric acid, soluble 9.94 

Phosphoric acid, reverted 2.00 

Phosphoric acid, available ll -94 

Phosphoric acid, insoluble 4. 1 1 

Phosphoric acid, total 16.05 

Potash . . 1. 21 

SUPERPHOSPHATES, (1871). 

I. II. 

P. C. P. C. 

Phosphoric acid, soluble 4.50 8.79 

Phosphoric acid, reverted 4.23 1.96 

Phosphoric acid, available 8.73 10.75 

Phosphoric acid, insoluble 8.64 3.88 

Phosphoric acid, total 17-37 l 4-&7 

It was about this time that so-called "complete fertilizers" 
were first made, the analysis of one of which was as follows: 



66 

P. C. 

Phosphoric acid, soluble 6.06 

Phosphoric acid, reverted , 2.00 

Phosphoric acid, available , . . . 8.06 

Phosphoric acid, insoluble 4.47 

Phosphoric acid total I2 -53 

Ammonia . 3.00 

Potash 1.50 

At the period represented by the above analyses, the strength 
of the acid usually employed was 40 B. to 42 B., and it is 
therefore not surprising that, with the increased amount and 
strength of acid employed at the present time, modern pro- 
ducts yield, in round numbers, three times the amount of soluble 
phosphoric acid and only one-third the amount of insoluble 
obtained in the older manufacture. 

The progress so happily begun, was continued. As the years 
went on and the demand for fertilizers increased, the old com- 
panies enlarged their plants, and new ones were added to the 
list, two of which were erected at Beaufort and Port Royal. A 
list in the Trade Review of The NeAvs and Courier for 1880-84 
shows that all the original companies, except the Sardy plant, 
were in operation and in addition gives the following new names : 

Ashepoo Phosphate Company, capital $100,000, Ashley River. 

Edisto Phosphate Company, capital $200,000, Cooper River. 

Ashley Phosphate Company, capital $100,000, Ashley River. 

Charleston Phosphate Company, capital $50,000, Ashley River. 

Wilcox & Gibbes, manipulators, city. 

Hume Bros. Phosphate Company, capital $500,000, near 
Beaufort. 

Port Royal Phosphate Company, capital $100,000, near Port 
Royal. 

Later on the following companies were added to the list in 
Charleston. 

Berkeley Phosphate Company. 

Imperial Fertilizer Company. 

Chicora Fertilizer Company. 

Royal Fertilizer Company, afterwards known as the Standard 
Phosphate Company. 

Read Phosphate Company. 



67 

The Beaufort County companies changed their owners and 
were enlarged and known as the Hammond, Hull & Co., and 
Baldwin Works. 

The Etiwan Works which had discontinued operations for 
several years, passed, ultimately, into the hands of a new set 
of owners, who, putting them in complete order, made a fresh 
start, under the old name, in April, 1900. 

Outside of Charleston and Beaufort the records of the com- 
panies established and their outputs are apparently inaccessible, 
and only the principal ones can be mentioned, as follows: 

Georgia Chemical Works, Pon-Pon. 

Columbia Phosphate Company, Columbia. 

Globe Phosphate Company, Columbia. 

Royster Guano Company, Columbia. 

Darlington Fertilizer Company, Darlington. 

Anderson Oil and Fertilizer Company, Anderson. 

Greenville Fertilizer Company, Greenville. 

Blacksburg Company, Blacksburg. 

It would be interesting and instructive, when viewed in the 
light of subsequent developments, to sketch the history of the 
fertilizer interests of the State; to show that, from the modest 
beginnings of 1867, the shipments of Charleston alone had reached 
100,000 tons in 1881, 261,650 tons in 1890, and 437,138 tons, the 
high water mark, in 1898; to give an account of the periods of 
depression and prosperity and to study the causes producing 
them ; to follow the companies in their futile efforts to arrive at 
some plan of mutual co-operation, if not of combination, and 
the final absorption of many of them by the Virginia-Carolina 
Chemical Company. 

Even if the limits of this article permitted, it seems advisable 
not to attempt such a presentation at the present time, but to 
close the account, as so far given, with a list of the works now 
in operation in the State by the independent companies and the 
Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company. 

The list, with the estimated capacity of each company, as 
nearly as could be ascertained, is as follows: 

INDEPENDENT COMPANIES. 

Tons, 

Ashepoo Fertilizer Company, Charleston 55,000 

Etiwan Fertilizer Company, Charleston '. 30,000 

Read Phosphate Company, Charleston 30,000 



68 

P. S. Royster Guano Company, Columbia 30,000 

Anderson Oil and Fertilizer Company, Anderson 26,000 

Total capacity, tons 171,000 

To these must be added the following manipulating companies, 
which, having no acid plants, purchase their supplies of acid 
phosphate: 

The W. C. MacMurphy Company, Charleston. 

Combahee Fertilizer Company, Charleston. 

Spartanburg Fertilizer Company, Spartanburg. 

Anderson Phosphate and Oil Company, Seneca. 

It is estimated that these companies have a capacity to pre- 
pare and ship, over and above their acid phosphate purchases, 
say 20,500 tons of goods. 

Together the independent companies have a. capacity of 191,500 
tons, an amount equal to a little less than 60 per cent, of the re- 
quirements of the State, which last year amounted to about 
325,000 tons. 

VIRGINIA-CAROLINA CHEMICAL COMPANY. 

$ Tons. 

Atlantic Works, Charleston 35 ,000 

Chicora Works, Charleston : 35, 000 

Imperial Works, Charleston 35, 000 

Standard Works, Charleston 70,000 

Stono Works, Charleston 30,000 

Wando Works, Charleston 25,000 

Ashley Works, near Charleston 20,000 

Georgia Chemical Works Pon-Pon 30,000 

Baldwin Works, Port Royal 36,000 

Columbia Works, Columbia 15,000 

Globe Works, Columbia 18,000 

Greenville Works, Greenville , 16,000 

Blacksburg Works, Blacksburg 12,000 

Total capacity, tons *. 377,000 

TOTAL CAPACITY IN STATE. 

Independent companies 171,000 

Manipulating companies, 20,500 

Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, 377,000 

Total capacity , 568,500 



LofC. 



69 

CONCLUSION. 

Although the story of the rise and progress of the South Car- 
olina phosphate industry is a more than "thrice told tale", its 
full and detailed history is yet to be written. 

In the preceding sketch an effort has been made to present only 
the more prominent facts connected with the subject in all 
its branches. 

Lack of space is responsible for many omissions, the most 
conspicuous of which is the story of the men whose knowledge, 
energy and skill built up, advanced and successfully developed 
this great work, which was the salvation of the low-country of 
South Carolina, and to whom the State is even more indebted 
than to the distinguished scientists who opened the way to them. 

Though much has been written in times gone by on the sub- 
ject matter of this article, but little of it is in accessible form, 
and an important part of even the brief description here present- 
ed has been rendered possible only by the kindness of Professor 
Charles U. Shepard, Jr., in putting at the disposal of the writer 
manuscript notes, made many years since, which embody some 
of the early results of the varied and extensive labors which 
made Professor Shepard the foremost authority on phosphates 
in this country. 

Except where otherwise credited the analyses given or re- 
ferred to in this article were made by Professor Shepard or his as- 
sistants in his Laboratory for Analytical Chemistry, or by its 
successor, the Shepard Laboratory. 

Philip E. Cha/al, E. M. 
Shepard Laboratory, Charleston, S- C. 



NOTE. 

As has been almost unavoidable from the way in which the 
necessary data had to be obtained, the annual estimates of the 
production and shipments of phosphate rock and fertilizers made 
by different parties have at times varied very widely, so much so 
as to make it impracticable to reconcile the differences, or decide 
between them. 

These statistics have not been presented in the preceeding 
sketch, this branch of the subject having been assigned for treat- 
ment to Major Edward Willis, of Charleston, who, from the 
inception of the industry, has devoted particular attention to 
these questions, and has prepared the annual statement thereon 
for The News and Courier. 



70 



The following table is taken from his article as published in 
the Centennial Edition, and is of great interest as affording a con- 
densed statement of the results arrived at by him. For the sake 
of comparison, there is also given a table showing the estimates 
made by the United States Geological Survey to, the end of the 
year 1902 only, the writer having been unable to obtain those 
for 1903. > 



TABLE SHOWING THE PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY 

of South Carolina land and river rock mined and shipped to 

foreign lland domestic ports, tons consumed, amount of 

royalty paid to State on river rock, and amount of 

fertilizers shipped annually from 1867 to 1903. 

(Years ending August 31st.) 

Prepared by Major E. Willis for Centennial edition of The News & Courier. 



Years. 



H 
o 

CLOD 

•oat 











o 


M 


;j3 


O 


02 


c 


<D 


« 


a 







a 


p 







H 


^ ce 








& O 


O 






1867. 
1868 
1869, 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877. 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881. 
1882 
1883. 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889, 
1890, 
1891 
1892 
1893, 
1S94 
1895, 
1896, 
1897 
1898. 
1899. 
1900 
1901 
1902, 
1903 



57 
54 
50 
36 
112 
100 
125 
142 
191 
210, 
250 
225, 
250 
262 
275, 
290 
300 
375 
371 
316 
339. 
276, 
330, 
322. 
323, 
355. 
292. 
232. 
201. 
242. 



,533 

: 

,624 

,566 
,161 
- 
,779 
,601 
193 

000 
000 
0001 

000 

,000 

100 

,500 

coo 

nuo 

736 

51 

79!. 
778 
827 
272 
121 
165 

704 

538 
8f>2 



7,143,216 



1,989 

17,655 

22,502 

45,777 

57 716 

67,969 

81,918 

L26,569 

97,700 

98,586 

65,163 

124,541 

140,722 

180,000 

181,800 

184,000 

195,000 

228,000 

254,000 

220,000 

296,758 

197,949 

176,600 

312,113 

135,498 

154,597 

124,177 

121,846 

86,460 

125,991 

135,753 

93,564 

137,281 

127 971 



12,262 
31,958 
65,241 
74,188 
58,760 
79,203 
109,340 
122,970 
132,478 
163,030 
210,322 
199,365 
190,763 
266,734 
332,077 
378,380 
431,800 
409,000 
445,000 
480,000 
509,000 
510 500 
586,758 
572,949 
548,396 
618,569 
475,194 
431,375 
445,004 
434,118 
409,581 
481,076 
428,562 
327,768 
338,819 
360,823 



4,628,158 11,771,374 



4,993,903 



362.191 



71 



ESTIMATES OF U. S, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 

Phosphate rock (washed product) mined by the land and river 
mining companies of South Carolina. 



Years ending 


Land Companies 


River Companies 


Total 


May 31st. 


Long Tons 


Long Tons 


Long Tons 


1867 


6 

12, 262 
31,958 
63, 252 




6 


1868 




12, 262 


1869 




31,958 


1870 


1,989 


65 ,241 


1871 


56, 533 


17,655 


74, 188 


1872 


36 ,258 


22, 502 


58, 760 


1873 


33 ,426 


45, 777 


79, 203 


1874 


51,624 


57,716 


109, 340 


1875 


54.821 


67 ,969 


122, 790 


1876 


50, 566 


81,912 


132, 478 


1877 


36, 431 
112,622 


126,569 
97, 700 


163 000 


1878 


210,322 


1879 


100 ,779 


98, 586 


199, 365 


1880 


125,601 


65, 162 


190, 763 


1881 


142, 193 


124,541 


266, 734 


1882 


191,305 


140,772 


332, 077 


1883 


219, 202 


159,178 


378, 380 


1884 


250, 297 


181.482 


431,779 


1885 


225,913 


169, 490 


395,403 


1885 J line 1- Dec 31 


149, 400 


1 28, 389 


277, 789 


1886 


253, 484 


177,065 


430,549 


1887 


261,658 


218. 900 


4,-0,558 


1888 


290 ,689 


157,878 


448, 567 


1889 


329, 543 


212,102 


541,645 


1890 


353, 757 


110,241 


463, 998 


1891 


344, 978 


130, 528 


475, 506 


1892 . 


243, 653 


150 575 


394,228 
502, 564 


1893 


308,435 


194, 129 


1894 


307, 305 


142,803 


450, 108 


1895 


270, 560 


161,415 


431,975 


1896 


267, 072 


135, 351 


402, 423 


1897 


267, 380 


90, 900 


358, 280 


1898 


298,610 


101,274 


399, 884 


1899 


223, 949 


132, 701 


356, 650 


1900 


266, 186 


62, 987 


329,173 


1901 


225 ,189 


95, 992 


321,181 


1902 . .• 


245, 243 


68, 122 


313, 365 


1903 
















Totals . . 


6,702,140 


3,930,352 


10. 632, 492 




e>r , 



The Century 

IN PHOSPHATES AND 
FERTILIZERS 



A Sketch of the South Carolina 
Phosphate Industry 



BY 



PHILIP E. CHAZAL E. M 



Presses of 

Lucas-Richardson Lithograph & Printing Co. 

130 East Bay St., 

CHARLESTON, S. C. 

1904. 



LS% 



